Critical execution : examination of The Virginian and Riders of the purple sage as formula westerns : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

Abstract

This discussion of the critical approaches to popular fiction, specifically, Owen Wister's The Virginian and Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage is intended to point out the short-comings of traditional literary criticism in popular fiction and cultural criticism in evaluation of literary merit and proposes the implementation of rhetorical criticism as a valid alternative in establishing merit in both culture and literature.