ABSTRACT
The romance Western is denned not only by heterosexual romance and the romance narrative but also by validation of the hero's action. The hero as cowboy gunfighter in romance Westerns develops from earlier formations in dime novels, possibly to heal the central contradictory threat of violence in the Western hero. Stagecoach is one of a number of A Westerns produced from 1939 that popularise the romance Western for a new, wider audience for the twenty years. The community of Dawson City represents a solid body of communities in Westerns, for whom the special skills of a Wyatt Harp, a Shane or a Ben Webster justly - more or less voluntarily - offer their services. The romance hero whose violence renders him obdurate prefigures developments in the Western hero from the 1960s and beyond. The romance Western is denned not only by heterosexual romance and the romance narrative but also by validation of the hero's action.
