Assassination in and/or of the Western

I recently spoke with a friend who told me about an article (I believe by Zizek) that discussed how the Western eventually became impossible to make and that we were left with "meta-westerns." (Bryan, forgive me if I am doing a poor job of recounting.) This trend began with "Shane" (which I have not actually seen), in which the entire Western unfolds from the perspective of the child. From then on, Westerns were no longer possible; instead, "Westerns" were stories that unfolded from the gaze of someone actually watching the real Western take place (e.g. "Shane's" child).

With this in mind, I will address two "Westerns" that I recently watched: "The Wild Bunch" (1969)  and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (2007).