Martial arts as embodied knowledge : Asian traditions in a transnational world / edited by D. S. Farrer and John Whalen-Bridge.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Farrer, D. S.

Whalen-Bridge, John, 1961-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Martial arts--Social aspects.

Martial arts.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (264 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This landmark work provides a wide-ranging scholarly consideration of the traditional Asian martial arts. Most of the contributors to the volume are practitioners of the martial arts, and all are keenly aware that these traditions now exist in a transnational context. The book's cutting-edge research includes ethnography and approaches from film, literature, performance, and theater studies.Three central aspects emerge from this book: martial arts as embodied fantasy, as a culturally embedded form of self-cultivation, and as a continuous process of identity formation. Contributors explore several popular and highbrow cultural considerations, including the career of Bruce Lee, Chinese wuxia films, and Don DeLillo's novel Running Dog. Ethnographies explored describe how the social body trains in martial arts and how martial arts are constructed in transnational training. Ultimately, this academic study of martial arts offers a focal point for new understandings of cultural and social beliefs and of practice and agency.

Contents:

""Martial Arts as Embodied Knowledge""; ""Contents""; ""Illustrations""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""1. Introduction""; ""Part I. Embodied Fantasy""; ""2. Some Versions of the Samurai""; ""3. The Fantasy Corpus of Martial Arts, or, The ""Communication"" of Bruce Lee""; ""4. Body, Masculinity, and Representation in Chinese Martial Arts Films""; ""Part II. How the Social Body Trains""; ""5. The Training of Perceptionin Javanese Martial Arts""; ""6. Thai Boxing""; ""Part III. Transnational Self-Construction""; ""7. From Floor to Stage""

""8. The Oriental Martial Arts as Hybrid Totems, Together with Orientalized Avatars""""9. Coffee-Shop Gods""; ""Contributors""; ""Index""; ""A""; ""B""; ""C""; ""D""; ""E""; ""F""; ""G""; ""H""; ""I""; ""J""; ""K""; ""L""; ""M""; ""N""; ""O""; ""P""; ""Q""; ""R""; ""S""; ""T""; ""U""; ""V""; ""W""; ""Y""; ""Z""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-4384-3968-7

OCLC:

775361438