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Abstract
Martial arts organizations can become Foucaultian institutions that discipline and punish practitioner bodies to enact ideologies of violence. In this article, I describe how these institutions function by examining the rhetorical history of one specific martial art, Taekwondo. My analysis extends Hawhee’s examination of Ancient Greek athletics to include modern martial bodies and the associated non-Western rhetorical traditions underpinning these practices. Martial arts institutions operate in the following ways: (1) Invent traditions for rhetorical purposes, intended audiences, and desired effects; (2) produce discursive systems of control (like training manuals) to communicate institutional standards, expectations, and authorized methods of practice; (3) ascribe rhetorical/symbolic significance to body types and martial techniques; (4) and persuade global audiences through mass media and embodied performance.
Notes
1 I thank RR readers Marissa Juarez and Erika Sparby for their careful readings of this essay’s earlier drafts. Their feedback helped me improve this work greatly.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Spencer Bennington
Dr. Spencer Todd Bennington teaches writing in the English Department at Virginia Tech. His research focuses on rhetorics of violence, particularly as they are embodied through martial practice by or against marginalized communities. In addition to researching martial arts, Spencer will soon test to become a fourth-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a licensed international master instructor. You can learn more about Spencer’s scholarship and activism at rhetoricalroundhouse.com or by emailing him at [email protected]