Circus as Multimodal Discourse

Performance, Meaning, and Ritual

Professor Emeritus Paul Bouissac (University of Toronto, Canada)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic USA
01 November 2012

Semiotics & semiology

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.

By: Professor Emeritus Paul Bouissac (University of Toronto Canada)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic USA
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 494g
ISBN: 9781441125637
ISBN 10: 1441125639
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 01 November 2012
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

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

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 for Circus as Multimodal Discourse: Performance, Meaning, and Ritual

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 *