The social meanings of clowning in the Fellini´s first years movies of the fiftieth decade.

• Grant number: 09/05955-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2009
• End date: July 31, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Célia Aparecida Ferreira Tolentino
• Grantee: Rafaela Fernandes Narciso
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências (FFC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Marília. Marília , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to study the clowning in Federico Fellini's work, particularly in his first years cinematography of the fiftieth decade. Based on the filmmaker's own thesis about the clown and their representations, as well as Bakhtin's and Bergson's thesis on the social function of laughter, and laughter as social agreement, we intend to observe the function of the ridiculous in Fellini's inaugural works aesthetics and discuss how it makes up a world vision and a possible social criticism, few understood in his time.