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A presentation by John Donohue given at the Tagliatela School of Business and Leadership Albertus Magnus College New

A presentation by John Donohue given at the Tagliatela School of Business and Leadership Albertus Magnus College New Haven, CT . John Donohue. www.johndonohue.net. Novelist Anthropologist Martial Artist. Fiction as Applied Anthropology.

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A presentation by John Donohue given at the Tagliatela School of Business and Leadership Albertus Magnus College New

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  1. A presentation by John Donohue given at the Tagliatela School of Business and Leadership Albertus Magnus College New Haven, CT

  2. John Donohue www.johndonohue.net • Novelist • Anthropologist • Martial Artist

  3. Fiction as Applied Anthropology (Or The Shameless Exploitation of An Academic Discipline for Personal Satisfaction)

  4. The Two Big Questions • Why Write? • What’s It About? The answer to both questions is related to my background as an anthropologist

  5. Fiction • Good fiction should create a resonance with readers. • Action fiction (the American “lone gunman”) contains stories that: • Celebrate the actions of the liminal individual • Portray violence as an agent of disruption and reconstitution of the social order.

  6. Anthropology (and opportunity)Comes Knocking • Anthropology excels at analyzing mythic themes in culture • My academic research: • Asian martial arts and American popular culture • ID’s structures and symbols in common with American adventure fiction. My fiction utilizes these themes in an exercise in applied anthropology

  7. The Concept: Martial Arts and American Myths • A yearning for secret, esoteric knowledge (ki, the force, fighting ability) • Rugged individual who uses force • A vague, yet pervasive spiritual element

  8. Themes • The warrior is an individual fighting alone • With simple weapons • As a moral agent “A man’s got ta do what a man’s got ta do”

  9. East Meets West 1 The Seven Samurai become… …The Magnificent Seven

  10. East Meets West 2

  11. East Meets West 3

  12. The Treatment Sensei, Deshi, and Tengu use two things to hook readers: • the martial arts • the murder mystery In each book • The hero is an outsider (liminal) • He possesses fighting skills (violent) • He faces a threat that the traditional forces of order cannot deal with (the chaos of danger) • He is drawn into conflict unwillingly (moral force) • He does so because of threats to those close to him (ditto). • The villain is a skilled, ruthless murderer with more resources than the hero (hokey suspense) • The hero defeats the villain (regeneration through violence)

  13. In best tradition of anthropological analysis of myth • Details change • Structure and themes remain the same

  14. The Production Here’s the interesting thing: • Reviewers take the novels at face value – a work in the typical mystery/thriller category (boy books in the trade parlance). • They cite interesting characters, plot and action • As a writer, this is tremendously gratifying But no one notices the underlying mythic structure I used for the story!!

  15. A Shock to My Mother Anthropology is useful after all!! • It exposes the power and deep structure of myth • It validates my research conclusions in terms of the structure and themes of mystery fiction • It demonstrates how the academic insights of popular culture studies can be applied to “real world” activities with successful results. • Ultimately, it points to the power of mythic elements in popular culture and the unconscious hold they have on the American imagination

  16. “. . . The significance of objects, actions and events lies not in themselves, but in what they mean to those who experience them.” E.E. Evans-Pritchard

  17. For Further Reading • Bellah Robert. N., Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swindler, and Steven M. Tipton. 1985. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. New York: Harper and Row. • Donohue, John J. 2006. "Cutting and Binding: Motion and Meaning in Transplanted Martial Systems." Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Anthropological Association, San Jose California, November 15-19, 2006. 2004. “Writing Sword: The Martial Arts Detective Thriller and  American Culture.” Paper presented at the Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Annual Conference, Buffalo, NY, Nov. 5-7 2004. 2002a. “Virtual Enlightenment: The Martial Arts, Cyberspace, and American Culture. Journal of Asian Martial Arts, vol.11, no.2:9-27 2002b. “Wave People: the Martial Arts and the American Imagination.” In David E. Jones (ed.) Combat, Ritual and Performance: Anthropology of the Martial Arts. Westport, Ct: Praeger Publishers, pp. 65-80 1994. Warrior Dreams: The Martial Arts and the American Imagination. Westport and London: Bergin and Garvey. 1992. "Dancing in the Danger Zone: The Martial Arts in America." Journal of Asian Martial Arts 1992, Vol. 1, no. 1: 86-99. 1991. The Forge of the Spirit: Structure, Motion, and Meaning in the Japanese Martial Tradition. New York: Garland Publishing. • Grady, James 2000. “Fist of fantasy: Martial arts and prose fiction.” Journal of Asian Martial Arts, Vol. 9, No. 4:52-75 • Slotkin,Richard. 1992. Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth Century America. New York: Atheneum. 1985. The Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization 1800-1890. New York: Atheneum.

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