Circus as Multimodal Discourse : Performance, Meaning, and Ritual

Description

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 w. Read more... Abstract: 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 w