Decline and Emergence : Puppet Types from Tradition to Modern Reinterpretations
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2026 |
| Type | Peer-reviewed scientific article |
| Magazine / Source | Amfiteater |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | https://www.slogi.si/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Amfiteater_14_1_RAZ_01_Trefalt_EN.pdf |
| Doi | https://doi.org/10.51937/Amfiteater-2026-1/288-306 |
| Keywords | Central European puppetry; carnivalesque; Slovenian puppet types; trickster puppet characters; subversion and resistance; ideological domestication; cultural memory |
| Description | The study focuses on the transformation of traditional puppet characters within the cultural space of Central Europe, with particular attention to the Slovenian context. It analyses the ideological, aesthetic and social implications of these changes. Challenging the linear narrative of cultural evolution, the author instead highlights the loss of the carnivalesque principle – marked by grotesqueness, ambivalence and subversion – as a critical cultural shift. Through a comparative lens on the Czech Kašpárek and Slovenian figures such as Gašperček, Jurček and Pavliha, the study reveals how ideological pressures and the absence of historical continuity led to the infantilisation and neutralisation of these characters’ critical potential. The text emphasises that these figures are not merely forms of entertainment but function as cultural archetypes that mediate memory, identity and resistance. Ultimately, the study argues that tradition cannot be replaced by formal construction and that aesthetic domestication is symptomatic of a deeper societal transformation. |