The Meaning of the Circus

The Communicative Experience of Cult, Art, and Awe

Professor Emeritus Paul Bouissac (University of Toronto, Canada)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic
20 February 2020

Circus; linguistics; Social & cultural anthropology

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2019

This book documents and discusses the meaning(s) of the creative process at play in the crafting and staging of circus acts. It highlights the experience of circus artists as their skills develop and mature into public performances that create aesthetic and emotional values in the modern economy of live spectacles. It scrutinizes the meaning that circus acts produce for the spectators and for the artists themselves who live this process from the inside.

This is a book for those studying semiotics and wanting to see it applied to a real life milieu in accessible and passionate prose.

The Meaning of the Circus is grounded on the personal experience of Professor Paul Bouissac as both a circus entrepreneur and a researcher with decades of primary material on the significance of past and contemporary circus acts. It is based on substantial accounts provided by many men and women who have agreed to share the challenges, joys, and anxieties of their life as artists. Personal and rigorous, it contributes to the hermeneutics of the circus arts by adding existential depth to the production and reception of their performances.

By: Professor Emeritus Paul Bouissac (University of Toronto Canada)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 318g
ISBN: 9781350163751
ISBN 10: 1350163759
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 20 February 2020
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Figures Preface Acknowledgements 1. Like moths flying to a candle in the night 2. Ritual and sacrifice: the circus between cult and art 3. The Music is the Message 4. Flashback 5. Great expectations 6. The Ethnography of Memory 7. A Sense of Gravity 8. To laugh or not to laugh 9. Lives under siege 10. Where is home? The circus’s endless Odyssey Bibliography Index

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 as an academic discipline.