Readings of Contemporary Circus

This book adapts a cultural-semiotic approach to analyze contemporary circus performances. It offers the first comprehensive documentation and interpretation of the artform based on the semiotic reading theories of cultural, literature, theater, and dance studies.

What are the characteristics of contemporary circus? In what way does contemporary circus differ from theater, dance, and performance? Where do hybrid forms exist? Where are there observable commonalities? Despite the diversity of contemporary circus performances, are there generalizable characteristics that unite the performances? What potential do these questions have for dramaturgical practice?

This book adapts a cultural-semiotic approach to analyze contemporary circus performances. It offers the first comprehensive documentation and interpretation of the art form based on the reading theories of cultural, literature, theater, and dance studies. The volume thereby provides a dramaturgy of contemporary circus, which reveals its generalizable characteristics, fundamental techniques and structures, and the effects they produce. At the same time, theories and methods are modified and further developed regarding the characteristics of the circus.

This book is designed for students and scholars in the field of theater and performance studies, as well as for artists, dramaturges, and directors working in the field of circus.

Autorentext

Franziska Trapp is a postdoctoral researcher at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

Inhalt

Foreword

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Theory

Chapter 3: Contemporary circus readings: an analysis model

Chapter 4: Come wander with me: on narration in Fragments of a Mind by Squarehead Productions

Chapter 5: Metonymic and metaphorical readings: on ambiguity in I am (k)not by Ana Jordão

Chapter 6: A balancing act between novel and circus: intertextuality and intermediality in Le fil sous la neige by Les Colporteurs

Chapter 7: Show me where you play, and I'll tell you what you are: on the relevance of performance context in L'Argile by Jimmy Gonzalez

Chapter 8: Otherness is the craziness we carry inside: on the discursive context of L'Autre by Cie Claudio Stellato

Chapter 9: Welcome to the Wonderland of contemporary circus: on metadiscourse in Les Princesses by Cheptel Aleïkoum

Chapter 10: Conclusion and outlook: toward a dramaturgy of contemporary circus

Appendix

Bibliography

Index