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

Abstract

Abstract: 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.