Marionette Theater of the Symbolist Era

“The conference brought together some of the best minds in the world working in the field, and the result is a scholar’s delight. Much new information is given, new light is shed on old topics, and important new insights are produced about seminal figures in Russian literature and culture – Evreinov, A. K. Tolstoy, Blok, Meyerhold, Nabokov and many others. Additional material is adduced about marionettes in other contemporary cultural contexts (Austrian, French, Spanish, etc.). . . . represents an important and necessary addition to our knowledge of the marionette theatre in general, and Russian symbolism and its aftermath as a literary and cultural phenomenon. . . its publication will be a landmark in the field, and the volume will quickly become a reference for authors.” – Professor Douglas Clayton, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, University of Ottawa, Canada

“Unlike many compendiums which are nothing more than a helter-skelter collection of articles, the editor Keith Tribble, arranges Marionette Theater in a topical and sequential order addressing the European antecedents of the puppet symbol, marionette images in Russian Symbolist literature and theater, some actual cases of puppet theaters, and the legacy of the marionette theater in later twentieth century Russian literature. . . . a valuable compendium for the scholar of Russian literature.” – Professor George Kalbouss, Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University

"One of the most important books on European puppetry of the last fifteen years. Its mixture of literary analysis, theory, and history provides both breadth and detail on the history of the origins of modern puppet theatre." - Dassia Posner

"... creates a strong impression due to the quantity of its participants, the quality of its articles, and the brilliantly written summaries in English, all indictative of very serious effort." -- Prof. Victor Dmitriev, Oklahoma University

Table of contents:
Preface (Sharon Carnicke)
Introduction (Keith Tribble)
Part I: Theoretical Considerations
· Marionettes in Traditional Puppet Theater (Anna Ivanovna) In Russian, with English summary
· Symbolism and Symbolists on the Puppet Stage (Irina Solomonik) In Russian with English summary
· The Heritage of Symbolism and the Theater of Synthesis and Animation (Mikhail Khusid) In Russian with English summary
Part II: Symbolist Marionette Theater in Western Europe
· The Rod Puppet in the Symbolist Era (Keith Tribble)
· The Shadow Theater in Europe in the Symbolist Era (Harold Segel)
· Alfred Jarry and the Marionette Theater (Stanislav Savitsky) In Russian with English summary
· The Über-Marionette: Twixt Idol and Movie Actor (Irina-Bagration-Mukhraneli) In Russian with English summary
· From Schnitzler to Meierkhold (Elisabeth Heresch)
· Lorca, Symbolism and The Curse of the Butterfly (Penny Francis)
· Stanislaw Wyspiañski and the Marionette Theater in Poland (Barbara Niemczyk)
· Puppets and the Work of Stanislaw Wyspiañski (Henryk Jurkowski)
Part III: Symbolist Marionette Theater in Russia
· Meierkhold and the Concept of the Puppet (Irina Uvarova) In Russian with English summary
· The Puppet, Blok and Petr Potemkin (Irinia Korneenko) In Russian with English summary
· The Actor as Marionette in Sologub's Essay The Theater of One Will (Irina Miller)
· The Talismanic Toys of Aleksei Remizov (Maria Staborovskaia) In Russian with English summary
· Leonid Andreev's Requiem: Audience as Puppets (Daniel Gerould)
· Evreinov and the Paradox of the Marionette (Sharon Carnicke)
· A Page of Museum Life, or the history of one discovery (Magda Lukashevich) In Russian with English summary
· Mikhail Kuzmin and the Puppet Theater: The Chronicle of an Interest (George Cheron) In Russian with English summary
· Nikolai Gumilev and the Marionette Theater (David Zolotnitsky) In Russian with English summary
· Perfected Beings: Rainer Maria Rilke and the Russian Marionette Theater (Konstantin Azadovsky) In Russian with English summary
Part IV: The Image of the Marionette in Soviet and Russian Emigré Literature
· On Azure Colors, Rays of Dust and Golden Keys: Buratino and the Invariants of Aleksei Tolstoy (Helen D. Tolstoy) In Russian with English summary
· Who is Buratino? Or Marionettes in Russian Prose from 1920s-30s (Leonid Katsis) In Russian with English summary
· Puppet Motifs in the Works of Nabokov (Galina Saveleva) In Russian with English summary