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Engineering Circus Enchantment: Automagic Technology and Electrifying Performances in Fiction

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Circus, Science and Technology

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Performance and Technology ((PSPT))

Abstract

At the interface of engineering and circus in fiction, technology manifests in the form of entertainment magic and virtual reality, immersing audiences in a range of illusive experiences. But how does technology affect the performing body in literary and filmic circus fantasies? Does it bypass or transcend human physical skill? This chapter explores cultural imaginaries of the (re)creation of circus performers through technology; scenarios in which physicality becomes somatic eccentricity, electricity becomes a means of posthumous performance and the engineer becomes a clown. Written jointly by a literary scholar and an engineer, this chapter explores the power of circus fiction to move from the Industrial Revolution to Aladdin’s magical lamp (and back), and discusses the fearsome aspects and morbid humour of electricity performances in dark circus fictions. In doing so, it ventures into an expansion of the notion of the engineer in literature. The chapter argues that in addition to being responsible for constructing tents and props, circus and engineering also participate in building worlds of meaning and cultural ideas of our technological future.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Anna-Sophie Jürgens & Robert C. Williamson

Authors
  1. Anna-Sophie Jürgens
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  2. Robert C. Williamson
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Correspondence to Anna-Sophie Jürgens .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Anna-Sophie Jürgens

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Jürgens, AS., Williamson, R.C. (2020). Engineering Circus Enchantment: Automagic Technology and Electrifying Performances in Fiction. In: Jürgens, AS. (eds) Circus, Science and Technology. Palgrave Studies in Performance and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43298-0_9

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