Abstract

In the present work, the author continues a number of her studies into the semiotics of the circus in culture. The circus of the Soviet epoch is in the focus of attention of the article. The circus in the Soviet period, as the author shows, was an anarchist space, paradoxically free from control of the official ideology and the state. Besides, as a place free from conventional norms and restrictions, the circus art was kind of the only erotic theatre of the Soviet period, some striptease-show. An attempt to understand the circus as an erotical space has traced its deep roots not only back to folk shows but also to shows of antique times.