This study examines how the female circus artist is represented in twelve pieces of French literature ranging from the late nineteenth century to the modern day. The books are divided into three categories by author type: first, authors without a circus background; second, male authors involved in the circus world; and third, women involved in the circus world. Although predicted that the first section would reveal the largest use of stereotypes and misogyny, the second would show the sexist expectations of the circassienne onstage and off, and the third would call out these stereotypes and suggest improvements, there was less variety found than expected. Only two authors—one from each of the first two categories—used circassienne stereotypes in an extremely negative manner, authors who were unfamiliar with circus but did research as well as the majority of the male authors familiar with circus bluntly stated some of the bias but did not offer solutions, and the majority of the female circus artist authors also stated the bias they faced but were limited in their opportunities to challenge stereotypes. Eleven of the books focus on artists from traditional circus, and only Circassienne looks at contemporary circus. Whereas there is a variety of literature about the contemporary circus scene in Quebec, Circassienne was the only book found to be written by a French circassienne that deals with normalizing the life of a circus artist in who lives in a house, sends their children to school, and creates pieces designed to expose children to contemporary circus as well as pieces with calls for activism. Overall, it was found that the situation for the female circus artist in traditional circus in France has not greatly changed in the past century. She is still expected to be feminine, to wear revealing costumes, and to flirt with the audience, often serving as the “female element” in an otherwise male-dominated group of performers. Reducing sexism in circus and the fight for gender equality remain part of the agenda of circus going forward, and progress is being seen faster in contemporary circus than in its traditional counterpart.

Bread and Puppet Theater's use of performing objects offers an aperture to contemplate complex assemblages that blur lines between the human and the nonhuman. Drawing upon cultural studies, feminist materialism, circus studies, and puppetry studies, I consider both the bread and the puppets as they intersect with various assemblages and fields of interpretation. These configurations demonstrate how the objects embody (non)human, material, and conceptual aspects. Because of this ability to exist within the meshes of binaries, performing objects are well suited to challenge and expose other binaries and hierarchies through three categories of analysis — movement, difference, and intra-action — based on Karan Barad's work on matter. In addition to the theoretical framework, I conducted ethnographic interviews and rely on my own experience as an apprentice at Bread and Puppet in 2004, considering myself as co-constitutive actant within the scope of analysis. I examine the way the theater uses sourdough bread and puppets as performing objects to create meaning, express ideology, apply tension within constructs of power, and demonstrate a model for co-dependent living between humans and objects / Doctor of Philosophy / Objects, despite their connections to daily life, which includes times of celebration and insurgency, remain overlooked as political actants. Bread and Puppet Theater, through performances, protests, and everyday living, places bread and puppetry as central to home and public live for puppeteers and performers. This dissertation asserts that bread and puppetry at Bread and Puppet Theater exemplify a co-creative relationship between people and things. This partnership creates tension in places of power, literal locations and within modes of thinking; simplifies and makes more accessible ideological messages; and evokes solidarity through performance. By considering bread in relation to Bread and Puppet Theater, we can see how bread becomes a fulcrum balancing between those with the most wealth and those with the least. Bread, as a symbol, is used to articulate demands. Its presence alone at protests suggests a list of demands regarding redistribution of wealth, fair wages, and food. As a symbol that touches the lives of all, it becomes an object that can evoke solidarity as a symbol but also as a product that is consumed and shared. Puppetry is exemplary of shared creation between people and objects. The rod puppets used at Bread and Puppet are especially suited to blurring demarcations between these two actants. Embodying this in-between space allows puppets to interrogate and blur other sets of binaries — the sacred and the profane, the religious and the secular, rich and the poor, state power and people, war and peace, and so on. This liminal, blurred space primes puppetry to challenge structures of power during political performances and protests. Ultimately this project considers how objects become central to political action and how, if thoughtfully mobilized, could operate as counter actants within times of turmoil.

No description available.

No description available.

Previous studies have established that when a subject’s attention is directed to a specific body part, the subject is able to move that body part faster than a body part their attention was not drawn to. This is known as the body compatibility effect, and it has been shown that this effect only occurs when viewing upright images of the human body. In this study, we presented control subjects and expert acrobats with inverted and upright stimuli. We hypothesized that the amount of time the acrobats spent inverted would result in the acrobats exhibiting body compatibility effects for both upright and inverted stimuli. Compatibility effects were observed in the upright condition for both groups, but neither group exhibited any compatibility effects in the inverted position. Unexpectedly the acrobats responded significantly faster to incongruent trials compared to the control subjects, leading to the conclusion that there must be some form of priming occurring concurrently with the body compatibility task allowing the acrobats to respond faster than the control participants.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Troupers: Essays in Three Rings is a collection of fourteen essays focused mainly on variety entertainers (including the author). It leads the reader through a menagerie of the author's own enthusiasms--from clowning and circus elephants, to hot jazz and the ukulele. While the primary occupation of the "troupers"spotlighted here has always been to delight audiences, many of them--both human and animal--could not escape the hardscrabble, the sundered relations, the violence of everyday life. The author tells the stories of these "troupers" here, stories that reveal both their suffering and their refusal to suffer.

Charles G. Finney’s 1936 novel The Circus of Dr. Lao was published to enthusiastic reviews, but fell into relative obscurity shortly thereafter. Since its publication, it has been the subject of one peer-reviewed critical essay, a number of reviews, one non-peer-reviewed essay, and a master’s thesis. It was published in a world where the fantastic and unique found only barren desert soil, with no scholarly tradition for the fantastic, nor a widely receptive lay audience for something truly unique, or sui generis. The concept of the sui generis, meaning “of its own kind,” provides a useful lens for examining the novel, as Finney develops not only creatures, but people, which are truly of their own kind, borrowing from existing mythologies, traits of humanity, and aspects of nature, recombining them in a singular way which resists classification. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.

O circo-teatro, presente na paisagem urbana de São Paulo em todo o século XX, constituiu-se em espetáculo popular baseado na hibridização cultural, com elementos da cultura erudita e da cultura de massa. Por sua vez, essas duas se apropriaram do discurso circense, num processo evidente de circu-laridade cultural. / The circus-theater, that could be seen at São Paulos urban landscape throughout twentieth century, constituted itself in a form of popular per-formance based in the cultural hybridization, with elements from learned culture and mass culture. In turn, both of these cultures assimilated the cir-cus discourse, in an unequivocal process of cultural circularity.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:32:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DANILO JOAQUIM DA SILVA.pdf: 1790693 bytes, checksum: 2994e91dbb3cf56d96bad2d4cf273802 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-26 / This dissertation aims to understand how the lived experience in Circus School Dom Fernando - ECDF influenced formation of children and adolescents in the Eastern Region of Goiânia identifying the role of this program for graduates of the period 1998-2009. The study was conducted in a qualitative perspective using to achieve the proposed objectives the following methodology: literature review, documentary research and empirical research. We analyzed the landmarks and public policies related to adolescence and youth in Brazil, the evolution of the social circus proposed as an alternative teaching from the perspective of nonformal education, in work with children, adolescents and young subaltern classes. For this feasibility study were interviewed using semi-structured, which we accomplished graduates ECDF enrollments between 1998 and 2009 and remained enrolled and attending at least two years. The research revealed that the ECDF, constitutes a major influence on its graduates, towards social emancipation, but work the importance of working with children and youth using the circus, which is characterized by a simple language but very attractive also motivates them to continue participating. / Esta dissertação objetiva compreender de que forma a experiência vivenciada na Escola de Circo Dom Fernando ECDF influenciou na formação de crianças e adolescentes da Região Leste de Goiânia identificando o papel desse Programa para os egressos do período de 1998 a 2009. O estudo foi desenvolvido em uma perspectiva qualitativa utilizando para o alcance dos objetivos propostos os seguintes procedimentos metodológicos: revisão bibliográfica, a pesquisa documental e a pesquisa empírica. Foram analisados os marcos históricos e as políticas públicas relacionadas à adolescência e a juventude no Brasil, a evolução da proposta do Circo Social como uma alternativa pedagógica na perspectiva da educação não formal, no trabalho junto a crianças, adolescentes e jovens das classes subalternas. Para viabilização desta pesquisa foram entrevistados por meio de roteiro semiestruturado, egressos da ECDF que efetivaram matrículas entre os anos de 1998 e 2009 e permaneceram matriculados e frequentando por pelo menos um ano. A pesquisa revelou que a ECDF, se constitui em uma grande influência para seus egressos, no sentido de sua emancipação social, além de trabalhar a importância de se trabalhar com o público infanto-juvenil utilizando a arte circense, que tem como característica um linguagem simples, porém muito atrativa que também os motiva a continuar participando.