COML 3701 - [Global Martial Arts, Film, and Literature]

(crosslisted)
(also ASIAN 3370) @ (LA-AS)

Fall. 4 credits.

Required: weekly film viewings W 7:30–9:30 p.m.; enrollment in sec 101.

P. Liu.

With recent blockbusters such as Kill Bill, Kung Fu Hustle, Hero, and The Matrix, a spiritual and bodily discipline from medieval Asia called “martial arts” has turned into an object of popular consumption in transnational cinema. This course studies the Asianization of global postmodern culture by comparing the historical routes, institutional bases, and ideologies of representations of martial arts in film and literature. Our questions will include the historical origins of martial arts and martial arts cinema; differences between “wuxia” and “kung fu”; contemporary Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Hollywood popular culture; Orientalism, race, and masculinity in transnational cinema; kinship, rites, honor, and duty in Chinese society; kung fu as philosophy; and the relation of martial arts to women, ethics, nation, work, and pleasure.