Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International
Pages: 204
•
Trim: 5¾ x 9
978-1-78348-127-9 • Hardback • April 2015 • $138.00 • (£106.00)
978-1-78348-128-6 • Paperback • April 2015 • $50.00 • (£38.00)
978-1-78348-129-3 • eBook • April 2015 • $47.50 • (£37.00)
Paul Bowman is director of postgraduate research studies in the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University. He is the founding editor of JOMEC Journal; founder of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Film and Visual Culture Research; director of the Race, Representation and Cultural Politics Research Group and co-director of the Reconstructing Multiculturalism Research Network.
He has edited multiple issues of the journal Parallax, plus issues of the journals Postcolonial Studies, Social Semiotics and Educational Philosophy and Theory, as well as regular issues of JOMEC Journal. In addition, he has edited several books: Interrogating Cultural Studies (2003), The Truth of Žižek (2006), The Rey Chow Reader (2010), Reading Rancière (2011) and Rancière and Film (2013). He has also authored many academic monographs: Post-Marxism versus Cultural Studies (2007), Deconstructing Popular Culture (2008), Theorizing Bruce Lee (2010), Culture and the Media (2012), Beyond Bruce Lee (2013) and Reading Rey Chow (2013). His work has been translated into Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Farsi. He is on the editorial board of Culture Machine, Global Discourse, East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, The Poster, and Ctrl-Z: New/Media/Philosophy.
Acknowledgments / Preface and Note on the Text / 1. Martial Arts Studies as an Academic Field / 2. Writing Martial Arts Studies: Body, History, (Trans)Nation and Narration / 3. The Reality of Martial Arts / 4. Martial Arts and Cultural Politics Mediated: Disrupting Political Theory / 5. Conclusion: Orders of Discourse / Bibliography / Index
What happens when a first rate scholar and long-time martial arts practitioner turns his attention to an orphan discipline? First, the field can never be considered marginal again; second, the founding fathers of martial arts studies will be challenged to step up their game to the next level; and finally, readers will get a crash course in the language and concepts of post-modern scholarship, allowing them to follow the ongoing debates in martial arts studies, where landing one good accusation of Orientalism, sexism or essentialism is like a flying roundhouse kick to the head. For those who seek a deeper knowledge of the role of martial arts in contemporary culture, and hence a deeper self-knowledge, they will find no better inspiration than Paul Bowman's Martial Arts Studies.
— Douglas Wile, Author of Lost T'ai-chi Classics from the Late Ch'ing Dynasty and T'ai Chi's Ancestors.
Following Nietzsche, Paul Bowman likes philosophising ‘with the hammer’. I think what he wields as a writer is more like a magic wand. Whisking received ideas of discipline, institution, tradition, body, nation, narration, media, theory and reality out of their usual academic slots, Bowman sends them spinning into the air to meet dreams, a visionary politics of culture and deep learning in martial arts. The result is intoxicating, a rush of energy from page to page. In Martial Arts Studies, impossible combinations take sparkling new shape and thinking is free to begin again.
— Meaghan Morris, Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney
Occasionally, a book is published that makes the ‘expert’ reviewer wish that he or she might have had the chance to read it before ever publishing anything on the topic at hand. Martial Arts Studies is just such a book ... Paul Bowman has done a wonderful job of both delightfully entangling us in the object of study and disrupting perhaps too comfortable relationships with the boundaries of our respective disciplines.
— Martial Arts Studies
The first comprehensive exploration of a burgeoning field.
Draws heavily on theory from post-structuralism, cultural studies, media studies and postcolonial studies.
Argues that representation, mediation and mediatization fundamentally complicate ideas about martial arts culture.
Examines the influence of media representation of martial arts in film, television, documentary and gaming.
Disrupts disciplinary boundaries to make a case for the future direction and growth of martial arts studies as a unique field.