Overview
- Brings together – for the first time – different scholarly perspectives on the facets of engineering and technology in circus contexts
- Provides a rich account of the circus’ past, how it was and is formative for the present
- Features contributions from performance and circus scholars, art and cultural historians, media and literature researchers and an engineer
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Performance and Technology (PSPT)
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About this book
This book explores the circus as a site in and through which science and technology are represented in popular culture. Across eight chapters written by leading scholars – from fields as varied as performance and circus studies, art, media and cultural history, and engineering – the book discusses to what extent the engineering of circus and performing bodies can be understood as a strategy to promote awe, how technological inventions have shaped circus and the cultures it helps constitute, and how much of a mutual shaping this is. What kind of cultural and aesthetic effects does engineering in circus contexts achieve? How do technological inventions and innovations impact on the circus? How does the link between circus and technology manifest in representations and interpretations – imaginaries – of the circus in other media and popular culture? Circus, Science and Technology examines the ways circus can provide a versatile frame for interpreting our relationship with technology.
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Keywords
Table of contents (9 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Engineered to Promote Awe: Circus (and) Bodies
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Front Matter
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Technological Invention: Engineering (on) the Circus Stage
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Front Matter
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Techno-Imaginaries: Imagineering Circus in Other Media
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Editors and Affiliations
About the editor
Anna-Sophie Jürgens is an Assistant Professor at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. She was an Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellow at the Australian National University, Australia, and the Free University of Berlin, Germany, from 2017 to 2020. Her research draws upon circus fiction, the history of (violent) clowns, and comic performance and technology in culture.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Circus, Science and Technology
Book Subtitle: Dramatising Innovation
Editors: Anna-Sophie Jürgens
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Performance and Technology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43298-0
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-43297-3Published: 23 June 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-43300-0Published: 24 June 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-43298-0Published: 22 June 2020
Series ISSN: 2947-5848
Series E-ISSN: 2947-5856
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XX, 189
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 13 illustrations in colour
Topics: Technology and Stagecraft, Theatre History, Contemporary Theatre, Performing Arts