Robin Asks: "What is important about how puppets reflected the political views of a culture, particularly in the early years of puppetry?"
We answered in class: "Puppets can be a form of soft criticism which offer political agendas through satire, farce, or outright representation of 'bad politics.' They also can offer a chance to represent an ideal government or political situation. This was especially a necessary form of political revolt due to the brutal nature of the developing world, as puppets offer performers sanctuary through the plausible deniability of puppets being the actual performers. No matter how ineffective blaming inanimate objects may be."
Group, do we have to say anything else?
I believe that covers pretty much what we talked about on Tuesday. It is really hard to be offended by a puppet, and in a political agenda that can really help I think.
ReplyDeleteWow Justin, You pretty much answered the question alone by the book. haha. But if I were to put in my two-cents I'd say just like any art and what it's about, a huge influence on "art works" is the need to express ourselves and our emotions. I think puppets reflecting their political views, expecially if they were under an oppressive government, was their way of getting their feelings about their government out, communicating it to others, and hopefully not getting in trouble for it. People always have felt the need to discuss their issues that they share in common with people. It makes us feel not alone in the problem. So in expressing political veiws in their puppetry, they were fulfilling that need. And purhaps some of their illumination of an ideal government helped bring about some of the changes.
ReplyDeleteThere can be a certain innocence to puppets, which would serve to keep performances about distaste for a political regime, social unrest, and a desire for change or revolt within a given government under the radar of officials who would prefer to keep such performances off the stage. It would be possible for these performances to be dismissed as something rather innocent.
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