Circus as Multimodal Discourse
Performance, Meaning, and Ritual
Published on 11. October 2012
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-4411-2563-7 (ISBN)
Description
Now available in paperback, this volume presents a theory of the circus as a secular ritual and introduces a method to analyze its performances as multimodal discourse.
The book's fifteen chapters cover the range of circus specialties (magic, domestic and wild animal training, acrobatics, and clowning) and provide examples to show how cultural meaning is produced, extended and amplified by circus performances. Bouissac is one of the world's leading authorities on circus ethnography and semiotics and this work is grounded on research conducted over a 50 year span in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.
It concludes with a reflection on the potentially subversive power of this discourse and its contemporary use by activists. Throughout, it endeavours to develop an analytical approach that is mindful of the epistemological traps of both positivism and postmodernist license. It brings semiotics and ethnography to bear on the realm of the circus.
The book's fifteen chapters cover the range of circus specialties (magic, domestic and wild animal training, acrobatics, and clowning) and provide examples to show how cultural meaning is produced, extended and amplified by circus performances. Bouissac is one of the world's leading authorities on circus ethnography and semiotics and this work is grounded on research conducted over a 50 year span in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.
It concludes with a reflection on the potentially subversive power of this discourse and its contemporary use by activists. Throughout, it endeavours to develop an analytical approach that is mindful of the epistemological traps of both positivism and postmodernist license. It brings semiotics and ethnography to bear on the realm of the circus.
Reviews / Votes
Bouissac's decades-long circus career combines with his semiotic expertise, producing an elucidating guide to the precedents and developments of various circus acts and their hitherto unspoken modes of communication. * Theatre Research International *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
508 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4411-2563-7 (9781441125637)
DOI
CBID162134
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2012
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic USA
€42.99
Available for download
Person
Paul Bouissac is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto (Victoria College), Canada. He is a world renowned figure in semiotics and a pioneer of circus studies. He runs the SemiotiX Bulletin [www.semioticon.com/semiotix] which has a global readership.
Content
Introduction, 'Playing with Fire'
1. Circus performances as rituals: participative ethnography
2. The 'textility' of circus acts: disentangling cognition and pleasure
3. Magic in the ring
4. Horses which speak, count, and laugh
5. Steeds and symbols: multimodal metaphors
6. The staging of actions: heroes, anti-heroes, and animal actors
7.Circus animals as symbols, actors, and persons
8. Dancing with tigers, lying with lions: translating biology into art
9. Clowns at work: a socio-critical discourse
10. The imaginary circus
11. Ideology and Politics in the Circus Ring
12. The post-animal circus
Conclusion
References
Index
1. Circus performances as rituals: participative ethnography
2. The 'textility' of circus acts: disentangling cognition and pleasure
3. Magic in the ring
4. Horses which speak, count, and laugh
5. Steeds and symbols: multimodal metaphors
6. The staging of actions: heroes, anti-heroes, and animal actors
7.Circus animals as symbols, actors, and persons
8. Dancing with tigers, lying with lions: translating biology into art
9. Clowns at work: a socio-critical discourse
10. The imaginary circus
11. Ideology and Politics in the Circus Ring
12. The post-animal circus
Conclusion
References
Index