Circus as Multimodal Discourse

Paul Bouissac is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto (Victoria College), Canada. He is a world renowned figure in semiotics and a pioneer of circus studies. He runs the SemiotiX Bulletin [www.semioticon.com/semiotix] which has a global readership.

• Introduction, ‘Playing with Fire'1. Circus performances as rituals: participative ethnography2. The ‘textility' of circus acts: disentangling cognition and pleasure3. Magic in the ring4. Horses which speak, count, and laugh5. Steeds and symbols: multimodal metaphors6. The staging of actions: heroes, anti-heroes, and animal actors7.Circus animals as symbols, actors, and persons8. Dancing with tigers, lying with lions: translating biology into art 9. Clowns at work: a socio-critical discourse 10. The imaginary circus11. Ideology and Politics in the Circus Ring12. The post-animal circusConclusionReferencesIndex

Bouissac's decades-long circus career combines with his semiotic expertise, producing an elucidating guide to the precedents and developments of various circus acts and their hitherto unspoken modes of communication.