Other performing arts Books

Book SynopsisPaul 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.Trade ReviewOne of the major contributions of the book is that, after reading it, watching clown performances can never be the same: the author guides us through the semiotics of clowning in such detail that every move and feature of clown acts will be overloaded with meaning(s) for the readers ... [A] reader-friendly book and an invaluable ethnographic approach to an area of study that has been most neglected by (humour and other) scholars ... particularly interesting for humour researchers, especially those who investigate clown performances in or, mostly nowadays, outside circuses. * European Journal of Humour Research *An important addition to literature on clowns and laughter, and an ambitious attempt to address in transcendent terms the negotiation of meaning at the heart of clown-generated laughter ... Valuable insights into practice abound ... Bouissac’s knowledge of and sensitivity to a breadth of cultural contexts allows for fascinating and relevant examinations of time-honored clown routines ... Indeed his book finds its full value in a sustained reflection from a perspective we don’t usually encounter: the sign-rich soil beneath our social interaction and the precise manner of its playful overturning by the classic circus clown. * Humor *In this book, Paul Bouissac, pioneer and master of the scientific approach to circus arts, demonstrates in a complete and brilliant way, by semiotic, anthropological and cognitive approaches, how the clowning art is a multimodal and complex act of communication, which produces laughter and sense through cognitive and cultural constructions shared by artists and spectators. THE definitive reference to understand clowning! -- Philippe Goudard, Professor of Performing Arts, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier, FranceBouissac brings his customary rigour and a true respect and love for the art of clowning to the task of discussing what clowns actually do and what it might mean. The full force of semiotic analysis bears generous fruit as Bouissac bases any theoretical analysis or deductions upon actual detailed descriptions of clowns in action. A hugely valuable contribution to the growing field of clown studies and an antidote to the lazy off-the-shelf popular mythologizing about clowning which passes for commentary in many quarters. -- Jon Davison, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, UKTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Faces of the Clown Appearance and identity The making of a face Kinds and scales of facial transformations in clowns The crafting of a clown’s make-up The face of dominance Interpreting the face of a clown The modern face of the clown When clowns go post-modern 2. The Costumes of the Clowns The clowns’ trunks Splendor and sophistication of the whiteface The auguste’s misfits and tatters Sociosemiotics and biosemiotics of clown costumes Clowns in drag: cross-dressing and transvestism 3. The Clown’s Workshop The semiotics of artifacts A visit to Charlie Cairoli’s workshop When clowns play magic Clowns as craftsmen and engineers The clown’s barnyard 4. The Semiotics of Gags What is a gag? Gags in context Rob Torres: a solo clown act in New York The semiotic anatomy of gags The physics of gags 5. The Game of the Rules The language of clowning The straight, the tight, and the loose Identity: one in two, two in one 6. Clown and Trickster Master of tricks Too good to be true Transgression and consequences Master of fire The trickster and his avatars Understanding tricksters and clowns Peering in the cultural past: a reasoned speculation 7. Clowns and Gender Play: Politics and Economy of Sex Beyond sex and gender Images of desire An odd couple A “normal” couple A bird tale Gender play 8. Clowns, Death, and Laughter Death at the circus Death of the auguste Realm of the macabre: ghosts, corpses, and skeletons Clowns and death in the arts: laughter at the edge 9. Profaning the Sacred The avatars of Clown A grand narrative and its fractal performances The sacred and the profane Putting things inside out and upside down 10. Clowns without Borders Mapping clowns on the world Clowns without borders? Clowning beyond the cultural fences Clowning in Java The gentrification of clowns Clowns with a mission Conclusion: Contribution to the Theory of Laughter What is laughter? The meaning of laughter Senseless laughing Laughter as addiction: a hypothesis and an agenda References

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Book SynopsisPaul 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.Trade ReviewOne of the major contributions of the book is that, after reading it, watching clown performances can never be the same: the author guides us through the semiotics of clowning in such detail that every move and feature of clown acts will be overloaded with meaning(s) for the readers ... [A] reader-friendly book and an invaluable ethnographic approach to an area of study that has been most neglected by (humour and other) scholars ... particularly interesting for humour researchers, especially those who investigate clown performances in or, mostly nowadays, outside circuses. * European Journal of Humour Research *An important addition to literature on clowns and laughter, and an ambitious attempt to address in transcendent terms the negotiation of meaning at the heart of clown-generated laughter ... Valuable insights into practice abound ... Bouissac’s knowledge of and sensitivity to a breadth of cultural contexts allows for fascinating and relevant examinations of time-honored clown routines ... Indeed his book finds its full value in a sustained reflection from a perspective we don’t usually encounter: the sign-rich soil beneath our social interaction and the precise manner of its playful overturning by the classic circus clown. * Humor *In this book, Paul Bouissac, pioneer and master of the scientific approach to circus arts, demonstrates in a complete and brilliant way, by semiotic, anthropological and cognitive approaches, how the clowning art is a multimodal and complex act of communication, which produces laughter and sense through cognitive and cultural constructions shared by artists and spectators. THE definitive reference to understand clowning! -- Philippe Goudard, Professor of Performing Arts, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier, FranceBouissac brings his customary rigour and a true respect and love for the art of clowning to the task of discussing what clowns actually do and what it might mean. The full force of semiotic analysis bears generous fruit as Bouissac bases any theoretical analysis or deductions upon actual detailed descriptions of clowns in action. A hugely valuable contribution to the growing field of clown studies and an antidote to the lazy off-the-shelf popular mythologizing about clowning which passes for commentary in many quarters. -- Jon Davison, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, UKTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Faces of the Clown Appearance and identity The making of a face Kinds and scales of facial transformations in clowns The crafting of a clown’s make-up The face of dominance Interpreting the face of a clown The modern face of the clown When clowns go post-modern 2. The Costumes of the Clowns The clowns’ trunks Splendor and sophistication of the whiteface The auguste’s misfits and tatters Sociosemiotics and biosemiotics of clown costumes Clowns in drag: cross-dressing and transvestism 3. The Clown’s Workshop The semiotics of artifacts A visit to Charlie Cairoli’s workshop When clowns play magic Clowns as craftsmen and engineers The clown’s barnyard 4. The Semiotics of Gags What is a gag? Gags in context Rob Torres: a solo clown act in New York The semiotic anatomy of gags The physics of gags 5. The Game of the Rules The language of clowning The straight, the tight, and the loose Identity: one in two, two in one 6. Clown and Trickster Master of tricks Too good to be true Transgression and consequences Master of fire The trickster and his avatars Understanding tricksters and clowns Peering in the cultural past: a reasoned speculation 7. Clowns and Gender Play: Politics and Economy of Sex Beyond sex and gender Images of desire An odd couple A “normal” couple A bird tale Gender play 8. Clowns, Death, and Laughter Death at the circus Death of the auguste Realm of the macabre: ghosts, corpses, and skeletons Clowns and death in the arts: laughter at the edge 9. Profaning the Sacred The avatars of Clown A grand narrative and its fractal performances The sacred and the profane Putting things inside out and upside down 10. Clowns without Borders Mapping clowns on the world Clowns without borders? Clowning beyond the cultural fences Clowning in Java The gentrification of clowns Clowns with a mission Conclusion: Contribution to the Theory of Laughter What is laughter? The meaning of laughter Senseless laughing Laughter as addiction: a hypothesis and an agenda References

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Book SynopsisWho was Dan Leno? In 1901 everyone in Britain knew who he was. They had seen him live on the music hall stage, listened to his jokes on the new gramophone and watched his funny antics in some of the earliest moving pictures. Even King Edward VII was a fan and the popular press dubbed Dan Leno 'The King's Jester'. But his path to fame was a hard one: he journeyed from being a child performer in the London and Liverpool slums to a chaotic career in hard-bitten northern variety theatres. Dan became the nation's favourite comedian, but as one of the first mass media stars he suffered from this continual exposure and died at the early age of forty three. Drawing on many previously unused sources, this is first, authoritative, biography of Dan Leno. Only Charlie Chaplin, often compared to Dan in style and appearance, was to occupy a similar position in the hearts of the British public. In telling the full story of Dan's life and career on the stage and screen, Barry Anthony brings to life the everyday life of Victorian Britain, as well as Dan's unique brand of humour and its resonance with later comedians such as Spike Milligan and the Monty Python team.Trade Review'Barry Anthony has learned so much more than I about the great little clown who became the King's Jester. He has brought it all together in this fascinating and so well documented story of Dan Leno's life and times.' - Roy Hudd President of the British Music Hall SocietyTable of Contents1 Prelude 2 An Inconvenience 3 The Infant Wonder 4 Nightmare Years 5 Monarch in Wooden Shoes 6 Leno's Grand Varieties 7 The Talk of London 8 Dame Durden & Mr Tambo 9 The War between the Sexes 10 Muffins and Mumpets for Tea 11 A Large, Genial Gentleman 12 Popularity 13 Regime Change in Drury Land 14 The Funniest Man on Earth 15 Orlando Dando 16 Grimaldi's Scissors 17 The Living Image 18 Postscript Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe Last Great American Picture Show brings together essays by scholars and writers who chart the changing evaluations of the American cinema of the 1970s, sometimes referred to as the decade of the lost generation, but now more and more recognized as the first New Hollywood, without which the cinema of Francis Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, Tim Burton or Quentin Tarantino could not have come into existence.Identified with directors such as Sam Peckinpah, Arthur Penn, Peter Bogdanovich, Monte Hellman, Bob Rafelson, Hal Ashby, Robert Altman and James Toback, American cinema of the 1970s is long overdue for this re-evaluation. Many of the films have not only come back from oblivion, as the benchmark for new directorial talents. They have also become cult films in the video shops and the classics of film courses all over the world.Table of ContentsTable of Contents - 6 Part One Introductions - 8 The Impure Cinema: New Hollywood 1967-1976 - 10 ”The Last Good Time We Ever Had”: Remembering the New Hollywood Cinema - 20 American Auteur Cinema: The Last – or First – Great Picture Show - 38 Part Two Histories - 72 The Decade When Movies Mattered - 74 A Walking Contradiction (Partly Truth and Partly Fiction) - 84 The Exploitation Generation. or: How Marginal Movies Came in from the Cold - 108 New Hollywood and the Sixties Melting Pot - 132 Part Three People and Places - 154 Dinosaurs in the Age of the Cinemobile - 156 ”The Cylinders Were Whispering My Name”: The Films of Monte Hellman - 166 Nashville contra Jaws, or “The Imagination of Disaster” Revisited - 196 For Wanda - 224 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere: The Uneasy Ride of Hollywood and Rock - 250 Auteurism and War-teurism: Terrence Malick’s War Movie - 268 Part Four Critical Debates - 278 The Pathos of Failure: American Films in the 1970s: Notes on the Unmotivated Hero [1975] - 280 Trapped in the Affection Image: Hollywood’s Post-traumatic Cycle (1970-1976) - 294 Grim Fascination: Fingers, James Toback and 1970s American Cinema - 310 Allegories of Post-Fordism in 1970s New Hollywood: Countercultural Combat Films, Conspiracy Thrillers as Genre Recycling - 334 Bibliography - 360 List of Contributors - 372 Pictures (with credits) - 376 Index of Film Titles - 378

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Book SynopsisFascinating F1 Facts is the perfect gift for the hundreds of millions of Formula 1 motor racing fans around the world. Written by Joe Saward, who has been a fulltime F1 reporter for 30 years, the book delves into the amazing stories behind the drivers, the races and the teams. Each story is short, so it's the perfect book for picking up and putting down, when you have a moment to spare, You will be astonished by some of the stories. Saward is a storyteller with a passion for the sport - and for spinning yarns. His World Atlas of Motor Racing, in the 1980s, had a huge influence on creating interest in the sport for a whole generation of new young readers.

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