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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00747
- Thesis Title
- Towards a Cognitive Poetics of Puppetry
- Author
- Pia Banzhaf
- E-mail
- banzhafm AT msu.edu
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- PhD
- Year
- 2017
- Number of Pages
- 320
- University
- Queen's Univerity, Kingston
- Thesis Supervisor
- Dr. Natalie Rewa
- Supervisor e-mail
- rewan AT queensu.edu
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Valerie Kuhlmeier, Allison Morehead
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- Cultural Studies
- Copyright Ownership
- author
- Languages Familiar to Author
- English, German, French, Italian
- URL where full thesis can be found
- hdl.handle.net/1974/23818
- Keywords
- Performing objects, puppetry, cognitive psychology, perception, philosophy
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- Spectators routinely ascribe intention, personality, even an inner life to inanimate,
contingently moving objects like puppets. Why do spectators do so? The prevailing
semiotic approach is unable to bring light into this fundamental perceptual issue of
puppetry. On the other hand, phenomenology and cognitive psychology are shown to be productive when it comes to tackling questions of the perceptual processes involved in contemporary puppetry. A bird’s eye view on the research areas that involve puppetry is proposed and a modified Tinbergian framework, which originates in ethology, is suggested. The research question is then situated within this framework. An overview of the scholarly works relating to puppets and the apparent missed connections between them underscores the need for a unifying framework. Detailed descriptions acquaint the reader with current works in puppetry. The works emphasize the need for tools that go beyond traditional semiotics for analyses of today’s puppetry arts. By applying a perceptual analysis, a cognitive poetics of puppetry is outlined. The assumptions of this cognitive poetics are tested against a first hand experiential/experimental foray into the practice of puppetry. This thesis thus contributes to the emerging field of studies
in puppetry arts in a threefold way: outlining the need for going beyond semiotics, suggesting a productive framework for the organization of the field, and developing a
cognitive poetics approach within this newly defined framework to answer the question
”How does it work?”