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Informationen zum Autor Paul Bowman is Professor of Cultural Studies at Cardiff University, UK. Klappentext What do martial arts signify today? What do they mean for East-West cross cultural exchanges? How does the representation of martial arts in popular culture impact on the wide world? What is authentic practice? What does it all mean?From Kung Fu to Jiujitsu and from Bruce Lee to The Karate Kid, Mythologies of Martial Arts explores the key myths and ideologies in martial arts in contemporary popular culture. The book combines the author's practical, professional and academic experience of martial arts to offer new insights into this complex, contradictory world. Inspired by the work of Roland Barthes in Mythologies, the book focusses on the signs, signifiers and practices of martial arts globally. Bringing together cultural studies, film studies, media studies, postcolonial studies with the emerging field of martial arts studies the book explores the broader significance of martial arts in global culture. Using an accessible yet theoretically sophisticated style the book is ideal for students, scholars and anyone interested in any type of martial art. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgements/ Introduction/ 1. Wrestling Myth/ 2. The Status of Martial Arts in the West: From the Kung Fu Craze to Master Ken/ 3. Cross-Cultural Desire in Western Eastern Martial Arts/ 4. The Circulation of Qi in Media and Culture/ 5. Myths of Martial Arts History, Authority and Authenticity/ 6. On Kicking, Kung Fu, and Knowing Your Lineage/ 7. Enter the Ethnicity/ 8. Wong Jack Man versus Bruce Lee Mythology/ 9. The Gender of Martial Arts Studies/ 10. Everybody was Action Film Fighting/ 11. The Weird and the Wonderful in Martial Arts Today/ 12. Martial Arts Myth Today/ Bibliography/ Index
