1st Edition
Spaces of Puppets in Popular Culture Grotesque Geographies of the Borderscape
This first book-length exploration of geographical engagement with puppets examines constructions of puppets in contemporary popular British culture and considers the various ways in which puppets and humans (not just puppeteers) are unified in diverse cultural media.
Organised around themes of metaphorical, performative and transformational puppets, the work draws out how puppets are used in diverse cultural media (fiction, music, television, film and theatre), how they are constructed through those uses, and to what effect. Both puppets as generalised forms (bodily, relational or ideational) and specific puppet characters (Mr Punch, Pinocchio) are explored. Building upon existing associations between puppets and the grotesque, the volume extends understandings of the puppet by elaborating borderscaping strategies through which puppets are constructed and an alternative perspective on the uncanniness of puppets. Geographically, it unearths distinct puppet spatialities, identifies the socially critical potential of puppets, rescales geo/bio-politics at the interpersonal level, and highlights the potential of puppets within posthuman debates about the status of the human.
This work will be of interest to anyone fascinated by puppets, as well as those in fields such as geography, anthropology, cultural and media studies, and those interested in the grotesque, posthumanism and/or non-representational scholarship.
Introduction
Part One: Metaphorical Puppets
Introduction to Part One
Chapter One: Puppets in Passing
Chapter Two: Narrative Puppets
Conclusion to Part One
Part Two: Performative Puppets
Introduction to Part Two
Chapter Three: Puppets in Text and Film
Chapter Four: Musical Puppets
Chapter Five: Theatrical Puppets
Conclusion to Part Two
Part Three: Transformational Puppets
Introduction to Part Three
Chapter Six: Puppets Becoming Human
Chapter Seven: Humans Becoming Puppet
Conclusion to Part Three
Conclusion
Biography
Janet Banfield is a college lecturer in Geography at University of Oxford.