The Semiotics of Clowns and Clowning: Rituals of Transgression and the Theory of Laughter

233 Pages·2015·1.43 MB·English

by  Paul Bouissac

The Semiotics
of Clowns
and Clowning
ADVANCES IN SEMIOTICS
Semiotics has complemented linguistics by expanding its scope beyond
the phoneme and the sentence to include texts and discourse, and their
rhetorical, performative, and ideological functions. It has brought into
focus the multimodality of human communication. Advances in Semiotics
publishes original works in the field demonstrating robust scholarship,
intellectual creativity, and clarity of exposition. These works apply semiotic
approaches to linguistics and nonverbal productions, social institutions and
discourses, embodied cognition and communication, and the new virtual
realities that have been ushered in by the Internet. It also is inclusive of
publications in relevant domains such as socio-semiotics, evolutionary
semiotics, game theory, cultural and literary studies, human-computer
interactions, and the challenging new dimensions of human networking
afforded by social websites.
Series Editor: Paul 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.
Titles in the Series:
A Buddhist Theory of Semiotics, Fabio Rambelli
A Semiotics of Smiling, Marc Mehu
Introduction to Peircean Visual Semiotics, Tony Jappy
Semiotics of Drink and Drinking, Paul Manning
Semiotics of Happiness, Ashley Frawley
Semiotics of Religion, Robert Yelle
The Language of War Monuments, David Machin and Gill Abousnnouga
The Semiotics of Che Guevara, Maria-Carolina Cambre
The Visual Language of Comics, Neil Cohn
The Semiotics
of Clowns and
Clowning
Rituals of Transgression
and the Theory of Laughter
PAUL BOUISSAC
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2015
© Paul Bouissac, 2015
Paul Bouissac has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on
or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be
accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4725-2173-6
PB: 978-1-4725-3278-7
ePDF: 978-1-4725-3111-7
ePub: 978-1-4725-2508-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bouissac, Paul.
The semiotics of clowns and clowing : rituals of transgression and
the theory of laughter / Paul Bouissac.
pages cm. – (Bloomsbury advances in semiotics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4725-3278-7 (paperback) – ISBN 978-1-4725-2173-6 (hardback) –
ISBN 978-1-4725-3111-7 (epdf) 1. Semiotics. 2. Performing arts–Semiotics.
3. Clowns–Semiotics. 4. Wit and humor. 5. Visual communication.
6. Modality (Linguistics) 7. Multimedia communications. I. Title.
PN1590.S26B68 2015
791.3’3014 – dc23
2014037436
Series: Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
This book is dedicated to the memory of
Charlie Cairoli (1910–1980) and Pépète (Alfred) Pauwels (1912–1989),
who embodied for me the legendary vis comica and
often made me irresistibly laugh.

Contents
Introduction 1
1 The Faces of the Clown 19
Appearance and identity 19
The making of a face 21
Kinds and scales of facial transformations in clowns 23
The crafting of a clown’s makeup 25
The face of dominance 32
Interpreting the face of a clown 38
The modern face of the clown 42
When clowns go postmodern 46
2 The Costumes of the Clowns 49
The clowns’ trunks 49
The splendor and sophistication of the whiteface 50
The auguste’s misfits and tatters 53
The sociosemiotics and biosemiotics of clown costumes 55
Clowns in drag: Cross-dressing and transvestism 57
3 The Clown’s Workshop 61
The semiotics of artifacts 61
A visit to Charlie Cairoli’s workshop 63
When clowns play magic 69
Clowns as craftsmen and engineers 71
The clown’s barnyard 72
4 The Semiotics of Gags 75
What is a gag? 75
Gags in context 78
Rob Torres: A solo clown act in New York 85
The semiotic anatomy of gags 88
The physics of gags 95
viii CONTENTS
5 The Game of the Rules 107
The language of clowning 107
The straight, the tight, and the loose 109
Identity: One in two, two in one 114
6 Clown and Trickster 123
Master of tricks 123
Too good to be true 126
Transgression and consequences 127
Master of fire 129
The trickster and his avatars 132
Understanding tricksters and clowns 137
Peering into the cultural past: A reasoned speculation 139
7 Clowns and Gender Play: The Politics and
Economics of Sex 143
Beyond sex and gender 143
Images of desire 144
An odd couple 146
A “normal” couple 149
A bird tale 153
Gender play 155
8 Clowns, Death, and Laughter 159
Death at the circus 159
Death of the auguste 163
Realm of the macabre: Ghosts, corpses, and skeletons 165
Clowns and death in the arts: Laughter at the edge 168
9 Profaning the Sacred: The Saga of the Clown 171
The avatars of Clown 171
A grand narrative and its fractal performances 173
The sacred and the profane 175
Putting things inside out and upside down 177
10 Clowns without Borders 181
Mapping clowns around the world 181
Clowns without borders? 182
Clowning beyond the cultural fences 185
Clowning in Java 188
The gentrification of clowning 195
Clowns with a mission 197
CONTENTS ix
Conclusion: Contribution to the Theory of Laughter 201
What is laughter? 201
The meaning of laughter 203
Senseless laughing 205
Laughing as an addiction: A hypothesis and an agenda 207
References 213
Index 217