The invention of martial arts : popular culture between Asia and America / Paul Bowman.

9780197540374 (ebook) :

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2020.

1 online resource (280 pages).

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'The Invention of Martial Arts' examines the media history of what we now call `martial arts' and argues that martial arts is a cultural construction that was born in film, TV, and other media. It argues that 'martial arts' exploded into popular consciousness entirely thanks to the work of media. Of course, the text does not deny the existence of real, material histories and non-media dimensions in martial arts practices. But it thoroughly recasts the status of such histories, combining recent myth-busting findings in historical martial arts research with important insights into the discontinuous character of history, the widespread 'invention of tradition', the orientalism and imagined geographies that animate many ideas about history, and the frequent manipulation of history for reasons of status, cultural capital, private or public power, politics, and/or financial gain.

Oxford scholarship online.

Print version :

Books / Online

English

November 19, 2020

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Specialized.