Through the Looking Glass: Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Circus Studies

Abstract

This chapter elucidates how – under the umbrella term circus studies – different disciplines define and explore the aesthetic, innovative, transgressive, and intermedial potentials of the circus arts. Disciplines involved in studying circus include cultural and literary studies, artistic research, neurosciences, sports and physical activity science, engineering, science communication, disability studies, humour studies, and many more. Offering a colourful and suggestive, but by no means exhaustive, introduction to the multiple approaches to a unique artistic practice and cultural phenomenon, the chapter focuses on two perspectives in circus research: work that, to understand circus practice, employs a science lens and work that, to understand the circus as a cultural and aesthetic phenomenon, utilises a humanities prism. The chapter presents a mosaic of perspectives and ideas in recent scholarly engagement with the circus and points to some of the crossroads where different disciplines meet.