Background
Davis, Robert Murray was born on September 4, 1934 in Lyons, Kansas, United States. Son of Mathew Cary and Elizabeth (Murray) Davis.
( In Playing Cowboys, Robert Murray Davis examines the We...)
In Playing Cowboys, Robert Murray Davis examines the Western hero-a principal image of American manhood since publication of The Virginian-as portrayed by a variety of post-World War II novelists and filmmakers. Innovative artists have used the Western to discuss issues of ethics and aesthetics, but its greatest impact may have been on popular cultural values. Davis shows that the Western is not primarily about escape or violence, but, at its best, is about development. The would-be hero adopts the existing role only to find it inadequate, and, forced to "reimagine" himself, he defines the Western hero anew. At the core of this process is strength-not power over others, but courage to go beyond the established boundaries. Although women do appear in the Western (often as proponents of "civilization"), it is fundamentally a man's world, offering an important view of male identity. Focusing on The Virginian, chapter 1 explores the origin of the Western hero and the source of the genre's major plots and issues. Chapter 2 evaluates history, myth, and the relative reality of the two in the works of Oakley Hall. Citing the novels of Richard Brautigan, E.L. Doctorow, John Hawkes, and Michael Ondaatje, chapter 3 compares the Western and the gothic novel, focusing on the concept of space. These works portray the West as a wasteland devoid of any vitality, but chapter 4 takes up science fiction Westerns (including works by John Jakes, John Boyd, and Robert Sheckley) that use the Western frontier to ironic and liberating effect. Chapter 5, on the motion picture Blazing Saddles and the postmodern Western novels of Ishmael Reed and Alvin Greenberg, examines the role playing by which identity is created. And in his Preface, Introduction, and Epilogue, Davis frames these discussions with personal observations on the West and its relation to the American masculine mystique. For those interested in Western movies or novels, popular culture, gender studies, or literary criticism, Playing Cowboys is a unique and indispensable guide to the territory from here to the sunset.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806124024/?tag=2022091-20
( Mapping out a cosmos bounded by heaven, hell, Kansas Ci...)
Mapping out a cosmos bounded by heaven, hell, Kansas City, and St. Louis, Robert Murray Davis looks back on his life in central Missouri in the 1940s and 1950s. As he recalls his youth and early adulthood in the town of Boonville, Davis wryly contemplates some of the sharp dichotomies by which his world was ordered: grown-ups and kids, blacks and whites, Protestants and Catholics, boys and girls, town and country, work and play, art and life. Davis sees now that as he grew up in white, postwar mid-America, he seldom pondered the limitations that its "either/or" perspective on life imposed. Sometimes, however, intimations about the world's complexity were too strong for him to ignore. The presence of an occasional black teammate in baseball jarred him into the realization that he knew nothing about some segments of Boonville society. His high school principal's lenient response to a teacher's demand for Davis's expulsion bared a weakness in the united front of adult authority over children. The boldness of the first girl in his class to wear makeup repelled and attracted him--and confused him about sex even more than did his Catholic education. Many of Davis's recollections involve his family and read like captions to snapshots in a family album. However different they were from each other, the two family branches were unified by their mutual regard for uniqueness of character (Davis says his mother felt that one's real duty was not to be right but to be interesting). Anything said or done by a family member had story potential, and Davis learned at an early age that transgressions were judged less harshly if their retelling enhanced an already varied and idiosyncratic family saga. Amid droll profiles of relatives like his guntoting, nearsighted grandfather, Davis also passes along such gems of practical information as the best way to kill a chicken and how to judge character by the car a person drives. Combining memoir with social history and inspired storytelling, Mid-Lands is a reflective and entertaining evocation of regional American life.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0820313920/?tag=2022091-20
English language professional educator
Davis, Robert Murray was born on September 4, 1934 in Lyons, Kansas, United States. Son of Mathew Cary and Elizabeth (Murray) Davis.
Bachelor of Science English, Rockhurst College, 1955. Master of Arts English, University Kansas, 1958. Doctor of Philosophy English, University Wisconsin, 1964.
Assistant professor, Loyola University, Chicago, 1962-1965; assistant professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1965-1967; professor, U. Oklahoma, Norman, since 1967; visiting professor, U. N.B., St. John, Canada, 1981; visiting professor, Dalhousie U., Halifax, Nova Scoti, Canada, 1984, 86.
( In Playing Cowboys, Robert Murray Davis examines the We...)
( Mapping out a cosmos bounded by heaven, hell, Kansas Ci...)
( Mapping out a cosmos bounded by heaven, hell, Kansas Ci...)
(1996 UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS HARDCOVER)
(Book by Davis, Robert Murray)
Member Western Literature Association (vice president 1998).
Married Barbara Hillyer, December 27, 1958 (divorced 1981). Children: Megan Elizabeth, Jennifer Anne, John Murray.