Kenneth Gross: Puppet - An Essay on Uncanny Life

11. November 2011
224 pages | 4 color plates, 24 halftones | 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 | © 2011

The puppet creates delight and fear. It may evoke the innocent play of childhood, or become a tool of ritual magic, able to negotiate with ghosts and gods. Puppets can be creepy things, secretive, inanimate while also full of spirit, alive with gesture and voice. In this eloquent book, Kenneth Gross contemplates the fascination of these unsettling objects—objects that are also actors and images of life.
... A book about reseeing what we know, or what we think we know, Puppet evokes the startling power of puppets as mirrors of the uncanny in life and art.

In seinem umfangreichen und vielschichtigen Essay  beleuchtet der amerikanische Literaturwissenschaftler Kenneth Gross die (Theater)Puppe in diversen Kontexten und Erscheinungsformen.  Dabei steht der Aspekt des Poetisch-Unheimlichen dieses  zwischen leblosem Ding und beseeltem Wesen changierenden Objekts im Zentrum der Betrachtung.

Kenneth Gross
Puppet - An Essay on Uncanny Life
The Unsiversity of Chicago Press 2011
ISBN:  978-0-226-30958-3       -     www.press.uchicago.edu