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The People in the Liminal Space of Bruce Lee's Films: A Postcolonial Analysis
Malmö University, Faculty of Culture and Society (KS), School of Arts and Communication (K3).
2022 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 80 credits / 120 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

The Big Boss (1971), Fist of Fury (1972), The Way of the Dragon (1972) and Enter the Dragon (1973) are four films where Bruce Lee stars. This thesis argues that the films, by means of focusing on liminal cultural figures — interpreters and social minorities, reject the binary tradition, give authority to complex cultural hybridity and open negotiatory space for cultural differences. Main filmic plots will be briefly articulated. Then the analysis begins with a chapter that contextualizes Lee’s kung fu films in the martial arts film genre, Hong Kong film history during the 50s and the 70s, and the Hong Kong society after the Second World War. Following this are two chapters that interpret Homi K. Bhabha’s postcolonial theories mainly from The Location of Culture and investigate Lee’s films from alternative postcolonial perspectives proposed by Bhabha. The first chapter considers the ambivalent mimicry of the colonial discourse suggested by Bhabha in “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse”. The concept of ambivalent colonial mimicry contributes to a better understanding of the colonial history. By means of entering the liminal colonial space of the films and looking for the intermediated characters — the interpreters who mimic the Western culture but are not qualified as a complete Western, Lee’s films attempt to subvert the hierarchy between the colonizer and the colonized. The ambivalent and hybrid presence of the interpreters denies the polarization of colonial identities and claims the hybridization of colonial history. The second chapter emphasizes the nation and the people proposed also by Bhabha in “DissemiNation: Time, Narrative and the Margins of the Modern Nation”. This chapter is about the argument that Lee’s films not only are about the pedagogical national discourse but also keep the interstitial space open for people’s performative narratives — particularly, the social minorities.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022. , p. 52
National Category
Humanities and the Arts
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-55447OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-55447DiVA, id: diva2:1704967
Educational program
KS K3 Culture and Change
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Available from: 2024-09-05 Created: 2022-10-20 Last updated: 2024-09-05Bibliographically approved

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