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

2. John Donohue Novelist Anthropologist Martial Artist
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 the first question is that I write fiction to reach more than the ten people in the country who read my anthropological stuff
The answer to the second is that all my novels are the same—they start with a murder, have a bunch of stuff in the middle and end with a honking great fight
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.
D. H Lawrence and the blue eyed killer

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”
The frontiersman, the cowboy, the private eye, the policeman, the secret agent are all examples of the American warrior hero.
ones--the flintlock rifle of the Minuteman, the cowboy’s six-gun, etc. This relates to the fact that our heroes are typically solo operators, and complex weapons typically require equally complex social units to operate. The fact that these weapons are individually controlled also means that the American warrior must be highly competent, skilled, and resourceful--a rugged individual. But in another way, the simplicity of the weapons also relates directly to another characteristic of this role.
It is not simply his or her independence and skill that is important. What is ultimately of significance is that he temporarily surrenders his independence and places his skill in the service of others. The American warrior can become heroic only to the extent that his struggle becomes enmeshed with the struggle of others. Here we have an echoing of the classic tension in American culture between the celebration of the individual and the claims of the community.

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

10. East Meets West 2

11. East Meets West 3

12. Sensei, Deshi, and Tengu use two things to hook readers:
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. But no one notices the underlying mythic structure
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. Anthropology is useful after all!!
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
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
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:
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 New York: Atheneum.