From the American Wild West to Bojszowy: Józef Kłyk’s Westerns as Social Rituals

• Authors: Jolanta Szymkowska-Bartyzel
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Jolanta Szymkowska-Bartyzel Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. Józef Kłyk is an over 60 year old amateur film maker from Silesia region of Poland who for over 30 years has directed over 50 westerns. All his western movies are made with 16mm Russian camera and the shooting is done on location in or near the village of Bojszowo, with the use of local people as actors and film crew Kłyk’s films are a premier on the icons and symbols of the American Wild West: cowboys, Indians, saloons and  ‘Wanted  ‘signs.  In  his  film  stories  the  Author  invokes the history of the American West and the history of Silesian villagers who in 1854 left for Texas and founded Panna Maria. The paper aims to examine the incorporation of the concept  of  this  classical  American  film  genre  with  its  main distinguishing  features  in  amateur  production  of  the  Polish director. It will focus on the ritual character of the genre movie and demonstrate how Kłyk’s western production is used by local community of the village of Bojszowo for ritual  purposes.  Reconstruction  of  village and rebuilding the history of Polish emigrants in Panna Maria within the form of film genre serve basic social function of expressing, fixing and reinforcing the shared values and beliefs of a community.

• Publisher: University of Silesia Press
• Journal: Review of International American Studies
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 1

Dates

published

2014-05-15

Contributors

author

Jolanta Szymkowska-Bartyzel