ABSTRACT
The process of defining the terms of circus aesthetics is very much like, and is linked to, defining its generic identity. Its aesthetic components and their shifting levels of importance in relation to each other have been subject to much change and adaptation according to institutional transformations and technical innovations over the years. The inclusiveness and populism of circus drama is also echoed in the circus parade, which was not only a supremely good way of drumming up business and attention, but also became a defining component of North American circus spectacle. One of the most important dimensions of circus aesthetics is the concept of anomaly. The modern circus may have its roots in eighteenth-century Europe but its various generic components have long since been adopted and adapted into very different forms by most of the countries which were the subjects of colonial expansion described by Said.
