ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates turn-of-the-century bicycle performances. It analyses two live promotional performances—a high-wire act and a round-the-world cycling feat—as well as cycling films by the Edison Manufacturing Company, a novel by Herbert Brown and a manual for female cyclists by Maria Ward.
Beginning with an overview of 1890s cycling performance cultures, I emphasise their impact on conceptions of industry and gender, association with bodily discipline, and role in the proliferation of advertising. I analyse a high-wire, electrical bicycle performance of 1897, contextualising it in relation to circus. Viewing the act alongside Edison’s trick cycling films, I argue that the high-wire performance presented a contradictory display of autonomy and systemisation. I contend that this promotional act deployed a derivative logic involving the production of personas and created a forum for sacrificial narratives. Drawing on Randy Martin, I make a case for the derivative as a theory of stunts and value.
The second half focuses on how cycling enabled some women to reimagine their gendered identities and working lives. I analyse Annie Kopchovsky’s round-the-world cycling journey of 1894–1895, arguing that Kopchovsky too deployed a derivative logic, commodifying human communication in a manner that disrupted liveness.
