'L’unico indiano buono è un indiano muto.' Un’analisi contrastiva inglese/italiano del discorso filmico western

This paper focuses on the contrastive analysis (English/Italian) of the trailers of two important films in the history of the western genre: Stagecoach/Ombre rosse (1939) and Dances With Wolves/Balla coi lupi (1990). Following the “discourse-historical” approach proposed by Ruth Wodak and Martin Reisigl (2001), the analysis of the discourse of power at play on the American frontier is conducted in order to emphasise the presence of a strongly connoted language that describes both Indians and pioneers. Taking into account the historical, political and sociological dimension in the analysis and interpretation of this specific discursive occasion (Wodak and Reisigl 2001), this paper aims at giving a brief overview of how native languages and native people were (mis)represented in western films, with a focus on two transnationally successful films.