Category Archives: Antagonistics

“Dodger” Takes on the Ne’er-Do-Wells of Dickensian London

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 1st October 2012 Slightly pre-Bartitsu, but the alert and imaginative viewer may perceive echoes of Sherlock Holmes-style fight choreography in this excellent video trailer for Terry Pratchett’s new novel, Dodger.

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“Femininity, Crime and Self-Defence in Victorian Literature and Society: From Dagger-Fans to Suffragettes”

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 21st November 2012 The topic of women and danger has long fascinated historians. Emelyne Godfrey’s new book, available now from Palgrave Macmillan, innovatively situates both well-known and more obscure themes within the cultural … Continue reading

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An Interview with Emelyne Godfrey

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 4th December 2012 Emelyne Godfrey is the author of the books Masculinity, Crime and Self-Defence in Victorian Literature and its newly published sister volume, Femininity, Crime and Self-Defence in Victorian Literature and Society. Q – Emy, … Continue reading

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M. Vigny’s School of Self Defence (1904)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 11th January 2013 From the Daily News, May 27, 1904: All good citizens will rejoice to learn that a new and efficacious method of abolishing those pests of the streets known as Hooligans … Continue reading

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The Bartitsu School of Arms and Physical Culture 2013: Beamish Museum, UK

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 22nd February 2013 We’re very pleased to announce that the third annual Bartitsu School of Arms symposium will be held between September 14/15 at Beamish, the Living Museum of the North, near … Continue reading

Posted in Antagonistics, Bartitsu School of Arms, Boxing, Canonical Bartitsu, Edwardiana, Jiujitsu, Savate, Seminars, Vigny stick fighting | Comments Off on The Bartitsu School of Arms and Physical Culture 2013: Beamish Museum, UK

“An incredible skill in the art of strangulation”: the Phantom of the Opera’s “Punjab lasso”

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 23rd February 2013 The so-called “Punjab lasso” is the signature weapon of Erik, the charismatic, homicidal genius anti-villain of Gaston Leroux’s classic serial novel, The Phantom of the Opera (1909-1910). Just as Leroux’s original story … Continue reading

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The “Knowledge of the Stick” in Napoleonic France

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 2nd March 2013 This short essay on the practicalities and wisdom of stick fighting is excerpted from “The Story of the Stick in All Ages and Lands” (1875), by Antony Réal. I … Continue reading

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Miss Sanderson and the Womanly Art of Parasol Self Defence

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 9th March 2013 Although the woman known as “Miss Sanderson” was a prominent fencer and self defence instructor in Edwardian London, regrettably little is known of her life – including her first … Continue reading

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The Bartitsu Club of New York City on “Edge of America”

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 18th March 2013

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“Dr. Latson’s Method of Self Defense” (New York City, 1906) and the “God-Man” scandal of 1911

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 12th April 2013 Bartitsu founder E.W. Barton-Wright once expressed the wish to export his “New Art of Self Defence” to the United States, and several of his articles for London magazines were subsequently re-published … Continue reading

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