Circus Leiden University Press Critical, Connected Histories 9 - Circus Bodies from the Global South

This collection of essays charts the amazing histories of circuses and acrobats from around the globe.

This collection of essays on circus histories and theories focusing on the Global South and its transnational contexts is significant because circus studies has largely focused on the Global North. Many Latin American, African, and Asian regions have circus histories dating back to the nineteenth century. Many of them have biographies, autobiographies, and histories of this spectacular world written in their own regional languages, which are not available in English or any other global languages. This volume on the histories and contemporary developments of the circus includes transnational and regional circus histories that connect the Global South to the rest of the world. The authors have crafted the essays using wide-ranging archival materials from regional languages, extensive ethnographic research, and conceptual frameworks of connected contexts.