Aspects of Puppet Theatre

Henryk Jurkowski's seminal 1988 text, Aspects of Puppet Theatre, was ground-breaking in its analysis of puppetry as an important performing art. Focusing on the cultural and social functions of puppetry, Jurkowski traced the role of puppetry in cultural life, from its ritualistic roots to its influence on modernist art and presence in contemporary theatre. This new edition of a classic brings the original text back to life, including four additional essays and a new introduction, edited and translated by leading puppetry scholar Penny Francis.

Henryk Jurkowski is a former Professor at the Krakow and Warsaw Superior schools of Theatre. He is Expert Editor of the World Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Theatre and author of History of the European Puppet Theatre, volumes 1 and 2. Throughout his distinguished career he has collected a number of awards, including the Polonia Restituta, one of Poland's highest Orders for services to culture.

Penny Francis is Honorary Fellow of the Central School of Speech and Drama, London, UK, where she is Lecturer in Puppetry. She co-founded the Puppet Centre Trust in 1974 and was awarded an MBE for services to puppetry in 1988. She is author of Puppetry: A Reader in Theatre Practice, and has written numerous articles for international conferences and journals.

Foreword
1. Literary Views on Puppet Theatre
2. Towards a Theatre of Objects
3. Between Literature and Plastic Art
4. The Language of the Puppet Theatre
5. The Sign Systems of Puppetry
6. Puppets and the Power of the State
7. Eroticism and Puppetry
8. The Human Among Things and Objects
9. Craig and Puppets
10. Among Priests, Deities and Shamans
11. The Acting Puppet as a Figure of Speech
Index