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

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

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Bouissac, Paul.
Imprint:	London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012.
Description:	1 online resource (225 pages)
Language:	English
Subject:	Circus -- Social aspects. Performing arts -- Semiotics. Discourse analysis -- Social aspects. Visual communication. Multimedia communications. Modality (Linguistics) Semiotics. Circus -- Social aspects. Discourse analysis -- Social aspects. Modality (Linguistics) Multimedia communications. Performing arts -- Semiotics. Semiotics. Visual communication. Electronic books.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11166789

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9781441102614 1441102612 9781441135759 1441135758 9781441125637 1441125639 1283706148 9781283706148
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index. English. Print version record.
Summary:	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.
Other form:	Print version: 9781441125637

Table of Contents:

Circus performances as rituals: participative ethnography
The textility of circus acts: disentangling cognition and pleasure
Magic in the ring
Horses which speak, count, and laugh
Steeds and symbols: multimodal metaphors
The staging of actions: heroes, anti-heroes, and animal actors
Circus animals as symbols, actors, and persons
Dancing with tigers, lying with lions: translating biology into art
Clowns at work: a socio-critical discourse
The imaginary circus
Ideology and politics in the circus ring
The post-animal circus.