Semiotics at the circus / by Paul Bouissac.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bouissac, Paul.

Series:

Semiotics, communication and cognition ; 3.

Semiotics, communication and cognition ; 3

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Circus--Social aspects.

Circus.

Performing arts--Semiotics.

Performing arts.

Performing arts--Audiences.

Visual communication.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (207 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : De Gruyter Mouton, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Semiotics is long on theoretical, often obscure discourses, but short on applications that demonstrate with clarity the applicability of its methods. This book confronts a challenging object, the circus, and endeavors to describe its performances in ways that explain how circus acts produce meaning and cause a deep emotional involvement for their audiences. The approach is not top-down, such as would be a method that would dogmatically apply a particular theory to fully explain the phenomena in terms of this theory alone. Epistemologically, this book is an example of the bottom-up strategy, which consists of considering first the objects and heuristically calling upon methodological resources in a broad theoretical array to come to grips with the problems that are encountered. Any circus act is a complex event that has cognitive and emotional dimensions. It is also a part of a history and an institution, and cannot be abstracted from its cultural and sociological contexts. Thus the range of relevant theoretical and methodological approaches must include structural semiotics, biosemiotics, pragmatics, socio-semiotics, cultural anthropology, the cognitive sciences, the psychology and sociology of emotions, to name only the most important. But the ultimate focus of this book is to enable the readers to better understand the meaning of circus performances and to appreciate the skills and creativity of this traditional popular art, which constantly renews itself from generation to generation.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction. A semiotician at the circus

Chapter 1. The production of circus space

Chapter 2. The time of the circus. Cognitive and emotional dimensions of acrobatics and other circus acts

Chapter 3. In what sense is a circus animal performing?

Chapter 4. Horses' feathers: from tacit knowledge to circus metaphors

Chapter 5. Circus and cycles

Chapter 6. The pyramid and the wheel: the visual discourse of circus acrobatics

Chapter 7. The logic of clown faces

Chapter 8. Incident, accident, failure: life and death at the circus

Chapter 9. There's no business like show business: the marketing of performance

Chapter 10. The researcher as spectator: the pragmatics of circus performances

Conclusion. Circus in perspective

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612706516

9781282706514

1282706519

9783110218312

3110218313

OCLC:

659563405