Circus bodies : cultural identity in aerial performance / Peta Tait.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tait, Peta, 1953-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Acrobatics--Social aspects.

Acrobatics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (198 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon [England] ; New York : Routledge, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This pioneering study is one of the major publications in the increasingly popular and largely undocumented area of circus studies.Through photographs and illustrations, Peta Tait presents an extraordinary survey of 140 years of trapeze acts and the socially changing ideas of muscular action in relation to our understanding of gender and sexuality. She questions how spectators see and enjoy aerial actions, and what cultural identities are presented by bodies in fast, physical aerial movement.Adeptly locating aerial performance within the wider cultural history of

Contents:

Introduction : aerial bodies

Graceful manliness, unfeminine maidens, and erotic gods

Unnatural acts, female strongmen

Cross-dressing and female muscular drag

Gender competition, camp spectacles, and impossible machismo

Androgyny to queer violence : Cirque du Soleil, Archaos and Circus Oz

Ecstasy and visceral flesh in motion.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [166]-178) and index.

ISBN:

1-134-33120-7

1-134-33121-5

1-280-24469-0

9786610244690

0-203-39130-6

9780203391303

OCLC:

475967294