Cross-Cultural Desire - Abstract

Cross-Cultural Desire Paul Bowman Cardiff University

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Day/Date: Time: Location: Activity:

Wednesday 6th May 2015 16:00 until 18:00 Keir Hardie 313, Swansea University GENCAS Research Seminar

Abstract Many issues coalesce and condense around the question of cross-cultural desire. This paper builds on Rey Chow’s speculative reading of David Cronenberg’s 1993 film M. Butterfly, and approaches the topic not just in terms of sexuality, but also in terms of the question of interest in or fascination with ‘other cultures’. In her essay, ‘The Dream of a Butterfly’ (1998), Chow reads M. Butterfly as a study of cross-cultural desire, and argues that the film (if not David Henry Hwang’s play upon which it is based) is far from a simple demonstration of Western ‘orientalism’. Rather, Chow emphasises the ways in which the film explores the complexity of cross-cultural desire, and some of the ways in which gender, sexuality and cultural identity are entangled. Building on Chow’s work, this talk sets out the basic issues that cross-cultural desire raises as they have been explored in gender and postcolonial studies, in order to explore cross-cultural desire as it relates to international interest in East Asian martial arts. Those who wish to prepare for the talk should watch M. Butterfly (Cronenberg, 1993) and read Rey Chow’s essay ‘The Dream of a Butterfly’, which is both in her monograph, Ethics After Idealism (1998), and also The Rey Chow Reader (2010). Bio Paul Bowman teaches media and cultural studies at Cardiff University. He is author of numerous books, including Martial Arts Studies (2015), Reading Rey Chow (2013), Beyond Bruce Lee (2013), Culture and the Media (2011), Theorizing Bruce Lee (2010), Deconstructing Popular Culture (2008) and Post-Marxism versus Cultural Studies (2007). He has also edited several books, including Rancière and Film (2012), The Rey Chow Reader (2010), Reading Rancière (2009) and The Truth of Žižek (2006). He has edited issues of journals such as Parallax, Social Semiotics, Postcolonial Studies, and Educational Philosophy & Theory, and is the founding editor of two online open access journals: JOMEC Journal and Martial Arts Studies. He is currently also Editor in Chief of Cardiff University Press.