A review by gutr0pdstl
Circus And Culture: A Semiotic Approach by Paul Bouissac

informative lighthearted medium-paced

3.5

I love the idea of a semiotic study on the circus, especially since I am really interested in both semiotics and clowns, but I think this book was a little too brief. Each chapter goes over a different aspect of the circus, i.e., the animal performances, jugglers, acrobats (which was the most interesting), and of course, clowns, but I think that there's not enough time given to each subject. The author does admit that there's not a lot of work to draw off of at the time (this book was published in 1976) and repeatedly encourages researchers to take up the mantle. I tried to look online if there are any other titles that have referenced it, but I didn't find much. While the bibliography in the back diverts into many other subjects, I did find it worth the library rental and will add some of those titles to my TBR.