The Circus Age
Culture and Society under the American Big Top
Janet M. Davis
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 10/2003
Pages: 360
Subject: Performing Arts, History, Technology and Engineering
| University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9.78E+12
eBook ISBN: 9780807861493
DESCRIPTION
Davis explores the multiple "shows" that took place under the big top, from scripted performances to exhibitions of laborers assembling and tearing down tents to impromptu spectacles of audiences brawling, acrobats falling, and animals rampaging. Turning Victorian notions of gender, race, and nationhood topsy-turvy, the circus brought its vision of a rapidly changing world to spectators--rural as well as urban--across the nation. Even today, Davis contends, the influence of the circus continues to resonate in popular representations of gender, race, and the wider world.