Table of Contents

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

Promotional Information

Searing analytical presentation of circus performances as multimodal displays of actions in context with a cultural and ritual meaning.

Promotional Information

Searing analytical presentation of circus performances as multimodal displays of actions in context with a cultural and ritual meaning.

About the Author

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.

Reviews

"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. ... Bouissac's work it is encouraging to find literature that takes an analytical approach to current performance work." - Katharine Kavanagh, Theatre Research International