Dr Vicki Pugh

Supervisors:

• Mary Vincent (Primary)
• Julia Dobson (School of Modern Languages and Cultures) (Primary)

Period:

Post-1800 

Thesis abstract:

The fairground offered a realm where reality was temporarily challenged: it opened new reflections in a specific context where the weird and wonderful was theatrically enframed and contextually contained.

Through the acknowledgement of the body as abnormal and arcane this atemporal context, which emphasised the "other", was paradoxically involved in a process of self-reflection, acting as a distorted mirror to the twentieth-century fairground goer and the temporal world outside its boundaries.

Through my research I will explore some of the intriguing and complex dialogues around the body, specifically allowed and facilitated within the fairground context.

Throughout, the fairground is regarded as a liminal space in which contradictions are not only created, but are fundamental to its significance in twentieth-century "sense-making". For example, the fairgrounds inclusion of "freak shows" occupy a space between anatomy and art, the living being and the object on display, entertainment and education.

Using the National Fairground archives, I also aim to remain sensitive to the materiality of the collection itself. I acknowledge the subjectivity of archival resources, particularly those of photographs of side shows.