Demitizzare il western: le tre stagioni di "Deadwood" (2004-2006)

A reading of the TV serial "Deadwood" (2004-06), and its relationship to literature, focusing on some demythologizing features: setting, refined and profane language, metanarrative and parodic style, use of "non regenerative" violence. In this essay, Deadwood is set against the tradition of the Western portrayed in fiction, movies and TV series and serials. It argues that the most intriguing aspects of this innovative serial stem from the work accomplished by writers such as Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy in the 1980s and 1990s, and from the extensive research of the New Western Historians in the last four decades. The essay focuses on three main aspects: the eccentric views on the West of David Milch, the serial's creator and executive producer; the complex relations, founded on purely economic forces, within a settlement (South Dakota, 1876) where law and order do not yet exist; and the weird mixture of persistent profanity and very ornate language.