Semiotics at the Circus

Bouissac (semiotics, U. of Toronto, Canada) employs numerous theoretical and methodological approaches in an exploration of the means by which circuses produce meaning, stimulate emotion, and activate cognition. The tools of semiotics, socio-semiotics, bio-semiotics, linguistic pragmatics, psychology, cognitive science, and anthropology are brought to bear on analyses of topics ranging broadly from the significance of the physical configuration of circus spaces, to the psychology of animal trainers; and from the emotional effects generated by simulating neonate facial morphology with clown makeup, to accounts of globalization's impact on the circus, animal welfare advocacy, and the rise of new, multinational circus entities. Annotation 穢2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)