1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910783604603321

Autore

Tait Peta <1953-, >

Titolo

Circus bodies : cultural identity in aerial performance / / Peta Tait

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Abingdon [England] ; ; New York : , : Routledge, , 2005

ISBN

1-134-33120-7

1-134-33121-5

1-280-24469-0

9786610244690

0-203-39130-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (198 p.)

Disciplina

796.47

Soggetti

Acrobatics - Social aspects

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [166]-178) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction : aerial bodies -- Graceful manliness, unfeminine maidens, and erotic gods -- Unnatural acts, female strongmen -- Cross-dressing and female muscular drag -- Gender competition, camp spectacles, and impossible machismo -- Androgyny to queer violence : Cirque du Soleil, Archaos and Circus Oz -- Ecstasy and visceral flesh in motion.

Sommario/riassunto

This pioneering study is one of the major publications in the increasingly popular and largely undocumented area of circus studies.Through photographs and illustrations, Peta Tait presents an extraordinary survey of 140 years of trapeze acts and the socially changing ideas of muscular action in relation to our understanding of gender and sexuality. She questions how spectators see and enjoy aerial actions, and what cultural identities are presented by bodies in fast, physical aerial movement.Adeptly locating aerial performance within the wider cultural history of