Embodying the Animal: Questioning Human Identity in Literature and Circus
Wesleyan University The Honors College Embodying the Animal: Questioning Human Identity in Literature and Circus by Emily Kate Vallillo Class of 2009 A thesis submitted to the faculty of Wesleyan University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors from the College of Letters Middletown, Connecticut April, 2009 Vallillo 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements………………………………………………..3 Introduction………………………………………………………..4 Chapter One Imaginative Embodiment in Literature……………….………....16 Red Peter…………………………..………………………….18 Enkidu and Gregor…………………………..……………..…20 The Churl and Gregor…………………………..………….…27 The Prisoner and the Hunger Artist………………………..…35 Chapter Two Physical Embodiment in Circus……………………………..……44 Roman Circus……………………………………………….…46 Traditional Circus…………………………………………..…50 Cirque du Soleil……………………………………………..…59 Conclusion….……………………………………………………..70 Notes……………………………………………………………....74 Works Cited………………………………………………………..75 Appendix …………………………………………………….……81 Vallillo 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my family: For always supporting me, particularly my parents. To Lunchbox: For being the most warm, funny, and accepting group of people. To Kailie Larkin, Dylan Marron, and Jo Firestone: For a loving library visit. To those who went through it with me: Gedney Barclay, Sean Chin, Miriam Krent, Annie Paladino, Abbey Rosenstein, and my COL class. To my editors: Chris Patalano, Julia Milton, Mark McCloughan, Annie Paladino, Ben Vigus, and particularly Carol Scott, who all went above and beyond to help me improve my writing. To Ben Vigus: For endlessly supporting me even when I didn’t deserve it. To Erika Rundle: For giving me the language with which to express my ideas. To Claudia Tatinge Nascimento: For introducing me to performance studies, inspiring me to write about the circus, and reading my thesis. To Kari Weil: For offering so much help and advice in a field in which she is incredibly knowledgeable and reading my thesis.
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