Circus and the Avant-Gardes

Anna-Sophie Jürgens is an Assistant Professor in Popular Entertainment Studies at the Australian National University (ANU), Australia. She is part of the network of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Her research explores the intersections between circus/comic performance, science and technology, and the cultural meanings of science. Mirjam Hildbrand is a PhD candidate in Theatre Studies at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Her research explores historical circus practice, the intersections between circus/theatre, and the discourse of ‘high/low’ culture. She also works as a freelance dramaturge and a programmer in the field of contemporary circus.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsChapter 1Arts for all Senses: Circus and the Avant-Gardes – Introduction Anna-Sophie Jürgens and Mirjam HildbrandPART 1HISTORICAL CIRCUS, POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT AND AVANT-GARDES – INFLUENCES AND INTERRELATIONS Chapter 2A Treasure Trove for Avant-garde Artists? Metropolitan Circus Performances around 1900Mirjam HildbrandChapter 3Circus, Dada, Vaudeville: Historical Avant-Garde – Between Popular and Experimental TheatreMartina GrossChapter 4‘Attractive Novelties’: Spectacular Innovation and the Making of a New Kind of Audience within Colonial ModernityMartyn JollyPART 2STAGING CIRCUS OUTSIDE THE RING: AVANT-GARDE EXPERIMENTS IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURYChapter 5Typocircus and the Czech Avant-GardesAnne HultschChapter 6The Present as a Trick or the Assault on the Spectator’s Psyche: Circus and the Soviet Avant-Garde Oksana BulgakowaPART 3STAGES OF TECHNOLOGY: CIRCUS, AVANT-GARDES AND (NEW) MEDIA Chapter 7‘Like a Three-ring Circus’: The Avant-garde Appropriates the Circus in the Battle between Distraction and AttractionsTom GunningChapter 8The Animated Circus and New Arts of Motion Kristian MoenPART 4 CIRCUS-AVANT-GARDE BODIES: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTIC PHYSICALITIESChapter 9‘Glitter and Broken Bones’: Professional Wrestling, Circus, Avant-Garde and the Radical Participatory Body Claire WardenChapter 10Glam Clowning: From Dada to Gaga – A Conversation with Le PustraAnna-Sophie Jürgens and Le PustraChapter 11The Aesthetics of Queer Work: Loïe Fuller’s Exhausting Life as Performance Art in Stéphanie Di Giusto’s The Dancer (2016)Wesley LimPART 5 CIRCUS AND AVANT-GARDES REIMAGINED SINCE THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY Chapter 12Political Clowns, Thrilling Strong Women and Animal-Free Excitement: Circus Reimagined through 1970s Avant-Garde Political TheatreJane Mullett and Peta Tait Chapter 13Avant-Garde Gestures and Contemporaneity in Today’s Circus Louis Patrick LerouxChapter 14‘Today for the last time’? On the Cultural Meanings of Circus and the Avant-Gardes – Some Final Provocations Mirjam Hildbrand, Anna-Sophie Jürgens and Aiden Essery Notes on ContributorsIndex