Book Review: Mythologies of Martial Arts

Abstract

In 1926, the famous ethnologist Bronislaw Malinowski stated that 'the study of myth has become a point of contact for various branches of academia' [Malinowski 1986 [1926]: 141]. Had he known that, almost one hundred years later, a branch of academia would develop that calls itself 'martial arts studies', he probably would not have been surprised to hear that it, too, has its own take on mythology. This comes in the form of a short monograph entitled Mythologies of Martial Arts, the second title in the new Martial Arts Studies book series published by Rowman & Littlefield. It is authored by Paul Bowman, the editor of that book series, one of the editors of this journal, organizer of the annual Martial Arts Studies conference, and professor of cultural studies at Cardiff University. Mythologies of Martial Arts takes up several of the strands Bowman laid out in his previous book, Martial Arts Studies: Disrupting Disciplinary Boundaries [Bowman 2015]. As the title of his latest effort implies, his focus is on the ideological narratives that surround, permeate, and define martial arts, as well as on the ways martial arts are practiced, perceived, and culturally understood (or misunderstood). While Bowman's theoretical approach is deeply rooted in (mostly French) postmodernism, and indebted to Hegelian and Marxist thought, his ideological impetus is that of Anglo-American cultural studies. To fully appreciate Bowman's work here, it will be important to clarify the methodological differences between Anglo-American cultural studies and their German and French counterparts. As it is known in German, Kulturwissenschaften (and, similarly, disciplines like medieval and early

Deconstructing martial arts

“…Farrer 2015; Barrowman 2015b). Significant among these is Sixt Wetzler's 'Martial Arts Studies as Kulturwissenschaft: A Possible Theoretical Framework' (Wetzler 2015). 10 This article is a particularly notable contribution to the field, to which I would now like to turn.…”

“…Does martial arts studies seek to 'change' things, or is it 'mere' interpretation? There are other interpretations of our academic obligations than a kind of quasi-or pseudo-Marxian radicalism, of course (Wetzler 2015). One does not have to struggle to change the world if one is working in academia.…”

Game of text: Bruce Lee’s media legacies

“…As noted, there is a movement among professional and amateur historians to point out, challenge and reject the cultural assumption that ‘martial arts’ has the silent prefix ‘Asian’ (Wetzler, 2017). This is because to prioritise Asian martial arts seems like an illegitimate semantic and semiotic coup when one considers the sheer range of martial practices that have existed and continue to exist in multiple cultures and societies around the world (Green & Svinth, 2010).…”

“…Another curiosity is that the term is also heavily associated with the idea of Asia. This association is regarded as an unjustifiable mistake by some, who point to the abundant evidence that military, paramilitary and civilian combat training practices have existed historically across almost all geographical regions (Wetzler, 2017). Examples include historical European martial arts (Burkart, 2016), Victorian and Edwardian urban martial arts (Godfrey, 2010), Afro-Brazilian martial arts (Assunção, 2005), postmodern martial arts (Jennings, 2016; Judkins, 2018), contemporary military-inspired fighting systems and so on.…”

“…(The term really takes off after Bruce Lee’s 1973 Hollywood film, Enter the Dragon. ) Doubtless, such a claim will disturb many historians (Lorge, 2012; Shahar, 2008; Wetzler, 2017). Indeed, this will be exponentially increased by the second claim of my argument, which is that the origin of ‘martial arts’ is located in cinematic and television texts of the early 1970s.…”