Circus bodies from the Global South : subaltern lives and transnationalisms / edited by Nisha P.R.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

P. R., Nisha, editor.

Series:

Critical, connected histories

Critical, connected histories ; 9

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Circus--Developing countries--History.

Circus.

Circus--History.

Developing countries.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Leiden : Leiden University Press, [2026]

Summary:

"This collection of essays on circus histories and theories focusing on the Global South and its transnational contexts is significant because circus studies has largely focused on the Global North. Many Latin American, African, and Asian regions have circus histories dating back to the nineteenth century. Many of them have biographies, autobiographies, and histories of this spectacular world written in their own regional languages, which are not available in English or any other global languages. This volume on the histories and contemporary developments of the circus includes transnational and regional circus histories that connect the Global South to the rest of the world. The authors have crafted the essays using wide-ranging archival materials from regional languages, extensive ethnographic research, and conceptual frameworks of connected contexts."-- From JSTOR.

Contents:

Introduction. Circus bodies that matter / Nisha P. R.

Flying devils and female fakirs: India on display at Bertram Mills circus in interwar Britain / Sabine Hanke

Circus, histories, and international relations: China’s acrobatic diplomacy in north America from the cold war to neoliberal globalization / Tracy Ying Zhang

Imagining Mexico: transnationalism and the reproduction of cultural identity in contemporary circus / Roy Gomez Cruz

Just across the ocean: African transnationals in Indian arenas / Nisha P. R.

Ethiopian social circus: performance, politics, and dreams / Leah Olwen Llewellyn

Transforming the ordinary: social circus as inclusion in the cities of Brazil and Latin America / Alice Demattos Guimaraes

Kinds of kins: enacting human care and affection towards circus animals in India / Eleonore Rimbault

Staging representations of Africans at America’s world’s fairs, wild west shows, and circuses – nineteenth and twentieth centuries / Robert W. Rydell

‘The world’s grandest, largest, best, amusement institution’: spectatorship, community formation, and conflict at the american tenting circus, 1825–1956 / Janet M. Davis

A strongman takes on the circus: eugen sandow’s 1904–1905 tour of Asia / Carey A. Watt

Circus in form: nineteenth century economic opportunism and touring colonial Asia and India / Peta Tait.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (JSTOR, viewed on May 29, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version: Circus bodies from the Global South.

ISBN:

9789400605374

9400605374

9789400605121

9400605129

OCLC:

1585500641

Publisher Number:

CIPO000367776

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license