Résumé :
The main argument of our present enquiry is that the Circus travels be-
cause a circus travels. That is, circus performers travel because their trav-
elling is part of the circus performance. For the performers, travelling
is not only a way of life, a tradition they follow, nor just an economic
necessity, a way of reaching the public but also a semiotic constraint en-
coded in the tradition of performance as historically negotiated be-
tween circus performers and their public.
Our concern with the travelling of the performers is, then, a con-
cern with living as circus, as well as with the processes of the very con-
stitution of circus and its significance within its social context
Following a brief presentation of the travelling performers and cir-
cuses in England in 1975 (Section A), we will address the question of
the symbolic significance of travellers for the sedentary order (Section
B). This will be followed by the two main sections of the paper in
which the ethnography of travelling will be presented (Sections C, D).
The ethnography will then be analyzed to support the argument of trav-
elling as performance and to elaborate on the symbolic significance of
the performance for the sedentary order (Section E). In the last section
(F), circus performance in 1975 will be placed in an historical and con-
textual perspective.

Localisation : Traitement documentaire B

DOI  : 10.2307/1773035

• Ex. 1 — Consultation sur place