Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Introduction: Attitudes Toward The Other, Matthew Isaac Cohen

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

The use of puppets, objects, masks and cantastorias in various societies around the globe, to represent and stage the Other.

Commedia Dell’Arte: The Mechanisms Of Othering, Olly Crick

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

This chapter proposes that the dramaturgic flexibility within historical Commedia dell’Arte was predicated on a performance methodology that demanded a changing pattern of othering, depending on the class, economic strength and region of their audiences.

How To Signify Otherness And Diasporic Bodies Through Puppetry: Two Plays By Kossi Efoui, Francesca Di Fazio

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

French-speaking writer of Togolese origin Kossi Efoui resorts to puppetry as a means of communicating the diaspora of the African people and the condition of Otherness experienced by a portion of humanity throughout history.

Always Busy Somewhere: Cooper Crafts An Entrée For The Other, Paulette Richards

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

African American ventriloquist John W . Cooper toured for a time with Richards and Pringle’s Famous Georgia Minstrels, but did not appear in blackface. Instead he used figures to get audiences to recognize the humanity and agency of a Black man.

Alterity In The Arabic And Near Eastern Puppet Theater, Marvin Carlson

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

This essay studies uses of alterity in the medieval plays of Egyptian Ibn Daniyal and selected modern Karagoz plays from Turkey, considering the alterity of the puppet itself and also the social alterities represented by the puppets in these works.

Matter’S “Dark” Powers: Performing Objects And Racialization In Nineteenth-Century American Spiritualism, Hazel Rickards

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

In this article, I analyze performing objects that were attributed to the agency of Black spirits within the 19th-century American spiritualist movement, exposing how white, female spirit mediums supported and tested a racial metaphysics that assumed white transcendence and Black materiality.

Mamulengo As Cultural Resistance, Mayumi Ilari

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

This chapter, using two recent examples from Brazilian puppet masters, briefly presents the origins of Brazilian puppetry and discusses the way Brazilian mamulengo tradition operates as a means of historical and cultural resistance, while enhancing diversity and racial equality through popular culture and theatre.

Exhibiting Blackface Puppets From The German Imaginary, William T.F. Condee

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

German puppet collections face the problem of how—and whether—to display their extensive holdings of blackface puppets that are built on grotesquely racist stereotypes, including the Imagined Turk, the Imagined African, the Imagined African American, and the Imagined Multicultural German.

Ralph Chessé And Forman Brown: When Carving The Other Is Carving The Self, Ben Fisler

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

This article examines two “closeted” puppeteers, Forman Brown and Ralph Chessé, who demonstrate alterity’s ability to disrupt itself. Their puppets are both exotic (“different from me”) and incorporated (“like me”), as the artists’ hidden racial and sexual identities blur the boundaries between self and other.

Deities Of The Indigenous Snake People In Religious Marionette Plays, Fan Pen Chen

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

This chapter shows how deities of the indigenes of southeastern China competed with and reacted to the invading mainstream Han culture through six sacred string-puppet plays.

When Klana And His Mercenaries Sailed To Java: The Expression Of Otherness In Surakarta Court-Style Wayang Gědhog Performance, Rudy Wiratama

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

Wayang gĕdhog was once a popular puppetry in Javanese courts. Besides of its Panji romance themes, it also has political meanings represented by Sabrang and Jawa figures, which enrich the play and giving it a broader context in Javanese culture.

Puppetry For A Total War: French And German Puppet Plays In World War I, Didier Plassard

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

Comparing German, Austrian and French puppet repertoires composed during or in the aftermath of WW1, this paper examines how these productions took part in the “bourrage de cranes” (brainwashing) of public opinions, instilling the hate of other nations in the minds of the youngest.

Sicilian Puppet Theater: Alterity Or Diversity?, Jo Ann Cavallo

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

From the perspective of alterity, the predominant figure of the Other in Sicilian puppet theater is undoubtedly the Saracen (Muslim) aggressor. Yet the Paladins of France cycle, with its over 300 nightly episodes, is replete with stories that eschew an opposition between an “us” and a “them” and instead underscore our common humanity across borders of all kinds. Indeed, camaraderie, friendship, and even romance can readily develop between individuals from the most disparate corners of the globe. My paper focuses on a selection of examples under the guise of both alterity and diversity, the latter achieved especially through heterogamous marriages.

A Real American Wife, A Japanese Object: Puppetry And The Orient In Minghella’S Madam Butterfly, Tobi Poster-Su

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

In Anthony Minghella’s celebrated 2005 production of Madam Butterfly, three white men manipulate the small, fragile body of Sorrow (Cio-Cio-San/Butterfly’s child), and, in a dream sequence, Cio-Cio-San herself–this paper explores how the production uses puppetry to represent the racialized Other, and how this might subvert, reinforce, or make visible Orientalist views of the East within the source text.

The Other In Southeast Asian Puppetry, Kathy Foley

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

Southeast Asian wayang/nang talung puppetry presents the local hero as refined. Three types of “others” repeat: 1) comic foreigners, 2) Raja Sabrangan (“Overseas King”) and followers, and 3) physically deformed clown servants. The last two groups are important and may relate to Austronesian concepts of spirit siblings accompanying each person through life.

The Western Tourist As Exotic Other: Coping With The Aggressive Ways Of The Casual Stranger, John Emigh

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

In the summer of 2004, the author traveled with Prof. Barbara Hatley to see a performance by the Ludruk Karya Budaya troupe of Mojokerto in Eastern Java and while there, the author participated in the performance; this chapter reflects on the minefield of cultural issues involved in their improvised sketch.

Introduction: Puppets Have Always Performed Others, John Bell

Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects

Puppets and performing objects have always performed alterities, often reflecting biased visions of Others. The papers in this collection about the object performances of Others can help us better understand global histories and cultures.

La Voz Spring 2021, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Conference Brings Cuba Scholars to UConn
• Performance Art in the Crossfire
• An Evening with Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
• Jesús Ramos-Kittrell Wins AAUP Teaching Innovation Award
• Alumni Contribute to State Latinx History Curriculum Initiative
• New Study: School Employees Help Farmworker Families Access Health Care

La Voz Winter 2021, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue you will find:

• MA Student Researches Takeover in Providence Schools
• Indigenous Language Survival in Colombian Amazon
• "Rise of the Latinx Vote"
• La Colectiva Virtual Conversation
• Mark Healey Wins SCHARP Award

La Voz Spring 2020, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issues:

• MA Student Randy Torres Awarded Mead Fellowship
• MA Student Spotlight: Victoria Almodovar
• Mark Overmyer-Velazquez to Publish Updated Translation
• Can Inclusive Programs Reduce Labor Market Discrimination?
• Exploring Mexico's Industrial Revolutions
• Anti-Haitian Stereotypes in Dominican Media
• Writing Puerto Rican History at UConn's Humanities Institute
• New State Course in African American, Latino, and Puerto Rican Studies

La Voz Winter 2020, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Multi-Media Artist Begins Year-Long Residence at UConn
• Graciela Mochkofsky Presents the 2019 Mead Lecture
• La Comunidad Intelectual Learning Community Presents Research at Virginia Tech Conference
• Cost Rica Education: Why it's Worth the Trip?
• Music Professor Publishes Book on Global Mexicanidades
• La Colectiva Feminista Comes to UConn

La Voz Fall 2019, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Latinx Leadership Initiative Launched
• Daisy Reyes Embarks on Follow-up Research
• Graduate Student Summer Updates
• UConn Ph.D. Discusses "Guest Worker" Programs
• The Vision for La Comunidad Intelectual

La Voz Spring 2019, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Education in the Latinx Diaspora
• Showcasing the Architectural & Cultural Beauty of Places
• Gilda Ochoa Visits PRLACC
• Tertulia con Amanda Guzmán
• Eyzaguirre Lecture Series: Lázaro Lima

La Voz Winter 2019, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• A Note from Your Librarian
• Learning to be Latino
• Illuminating the Path with Maria Hinojosa
• Robert G. Mead Lecture Series
• Tertulia con Scott Wallace
• Tertulia Con Solsiree del Moral
• The U Turn
• Tinker Spotlight
• Puerto Rican Studies Association

Living Objects Essays: Prologue, John Bell

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays

Living Objects: African American Puppetry co-curator John Bell describes the team responsible for the Living Objects exhibition, festival, symposium, and online catalogue.

Embracing Complexity In Performing The Other, Valeska Maria Populoh

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays

"Embracing Complexity in Performing the Other" is a personal essay by a white, Baltimore-based cultural organizer, puppeteer and educator, reflecting on three scenarios that have catalyzed her thinking about white people performing Black puppets. The author shares her own experience of navigating the complex, and at times highly combustible, issues about representation, appropriation and racial identity in the realm of puppetry, and concludes with a few questions to stimulate further dialogue in the puppetry community about these issues.

Power Puppets In Portable Pulpits: A Personal Account Of Puppet Ministry In The African American Community, Yolanda Sampson

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays

Yolanda Sampson relates the history of her path into puppet ministry and her PuppeTainment Productions company, which presents Christian stories in a “hip, entertaining way,” bringing “biblical principles to life for twenty-first century children.” She recounts her initiation in puppet ministry at the age of twelve, and her development of stories about the dangers of drug culture in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as her use of puppetry in beauty pageant competitions, and her ventures into puppet video productions such as What Time is It? and Tell It Like It Is. Sampson took a three-year hiatus to earn her …

Race And Representation: Creating A Puppet Production For The Smithsonian Institution, Brad Brewer

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays

The Brewery Puppet Troupe was commissioned by the Smithsonian Museum’s Lemelson Center to undertake new creative challenge: a show featuring African American scientist Lewis Latimer, the nineteenth-century inventor instrumental in creating the electric light bulb. Brad Brewer was committed to showing how Latimer’s life was affected by America’s struggle with slavery and racial inequality, issues he considered equally important to Latimer's scientific achievements. Staff historians read and commented on all the drafts of the script, but the production still included comedic elements typical of a Brewery Troupe production. The project allowed the author to explore some of the hard realities …

Egg Whites: A Short Puppet Film Script, Alva Rogers

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays

Alva Rogers’ script for a short puppet film is a magical realist treatment of a mother’s efforts to help her young daughter, an unnamed African American girl, fall asleep in their New York apartment. The mother explains straightforwardly how she will make muffins for the girl’s breakfast, but the film then shifts into a surreal territory where the girl travels on a moonbeam to the sun, and then appears in a rowboat in a vast ocean, where she wants to plant a flower—all while the mother is baking in the kitchen. The sea explains that the girl’s flower will not …

An Email Interview With Alva Rogers, Paulette Richards

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays

Actor, writer, and puppeteer Alva Rogers recounts her long-standing interests in theater, and her early performances combining dolls with texts by Zora Neale Hurston and others. Her work as a performance artist led to her role as Eula in the film Daughters of the Dust. She then studied playwriting, musical theater, and history at Brown University, NYU, and Bard College respectively. Rogers’s influences include surrealist painters, magic realism, such writers as Adrienne Kennedy, Ralph Ellison, and Federico Garcia Lorca, and the Gullah/Geechee culture of the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. She uses both dolls and puppets in …