Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Presença (Feb 2020)

Misfitness: the hermeneutics of failure and the poetics of the clown – Heidegger and clowns

  • Marcelo Beré

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 01 – 29

Abstract

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The article presents some Heideggerian ideas applied to the art of clowning. Four principles of practice of the clown’s art are analysed in the light of misfitness – a concept based on the clown’s ability not to fit into theatrical, cinematic and social conventions, thus creating a language of his own. In an ontological approach, this article seeks to examine what it means to be a clown-in-the-world. Following a Heideggerian principle, the clown is analysed here taking into account his artistic praxis; a clown is what a clown does: this is the basic principle of clown poetics. The conclusion proposes a look at the clown’s way of thinking – which is here called misfit logic – and shows the hermeneutics of failure, where the logic of success becomes questionable.

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