ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

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aforementioned questions are any number of others regarding the social life of the artists, the themes in their plays, and the material concerns of nineteenth and early twentieth century American puppetry. Answers to any of these questions depend on understanding both the physical qualities of the puppets and their documented productions. Answers also require understanding the meanings given them by their creators. Phenomenology, a semi-scientific model that investigates the “essences” of “things,” may guide scholarly investigation to some answers. Phenomenology is, in the words of philosophy scholar Laurie Spurling, “an archaeological effort to excavate pre-scientific life experiences.” 5 The meanings of phenomena become at least as important as their empirical existence, as the phenomenologist explores the unique essences of each phenomenon. By virtue of this method, a puppet has several essences. It is a tangible object of wood, paint, and fabric, a representation of a character in a play, and a sort of performing proxy for its manipulator. As the phenomenologist emphasizes each individual essence, he/she places brackets around that essence, performing what is called the phenomenological reduction. 6 The phenomenologist then attempts to describe the pre-scientific meanings that human beings assign to the phenomenon, that is, the meanings that precede the empirical divisions created by scientific explanation, according to the essences that are pertinent to each investigation. 5 Laurie Spurling, Phenomenology and the Social World: The Philosophy of Merleau-Ponty and its Relation to the Social Sciences (London: Routledge, 1977), 9. 6 David Stewart and Algis Mickunas, Exploring Phenomenology: A Guide to the Field and its Literature (Chicago: American Library Association, 1974), 26. 3
Bert O’States expands on the method, in order to specifically orient the “phenomenological attitude” to theatre. 7 The notion of “frontality,” in the phenomenological method, clearly identifies the perceptual puzzle of theatre studies. One is always forced to look at one essence of a thing at a time. Theatre is, at its core, frontality; each production is one frontality of a given play. In O’States’s own words: [T]his problem takes us to the base of all our concerns with the problematics of meaning: the central terms of our critical discourse […] can be treated as variations on the principle of frontality. For frontality is not simply the perception of the surface facing us; it carries with it what Husserl calls the “apperception” of the rest of the object which is, in “a kind of” way, “co-present” even though unseen. 8 When O’States speaks of frontality, he is describing what people normally refer to as perception, that which is perceived as an essential fact of the object being perceived. One perceives Sir John Gielgud playing the King Lear who grieves for his lost daughter Cordelia, in act V of a present production. As one perceives this actor in this moment of the character’s life, one also “apperceives” the previous moments in the production that contribute to a complete understanding of Gielgud’s interpretation of the role. In turn, one also apperceives other performances of the role, as well as one’s own readings and outside study of King Lear. Co-present in every present frontality of Lear are all the previous frontalities that contribute to shaping one’s total understanding of the character, 7 Bert O’States, “The Phenomenological Attitude,” Critical Theory and Performance (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1992), 369. 8 Ibid., 371. 4
Page 1 and 2: ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE
Page 3 and 4: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF RACIALISM: BLA
Page 5 and 6: Dedication This dissertation is ded
Page 7 and 8: Table of Contents Dedication.......
Page 9: House and the Brooklyn Academy of M
Page 13 and 14: previous related performances, are
Page 15 and 16: “blackface” as counterfeit perf
Page 17 and 18: demands of this transcendent notion
Page 19 and 20: To manage such an investigation, th
Page 21 and 22: a celebration of superiority. 20 Th
Page 23 and 24: playbill, minstrel show script, con
Page 25 and 26: Lano fancies himself an advocate of
Page 27 and 28: of the African American race, and s
Page 29 and 30: in creating the first connection be
Page 31 and 32: In order to explain the interaction
Page 33 and 34: performance. 29 Marionette minstrel
Page 35 and 36: Nonetheless, it maintains the criss
Page 37 and 38: 3), into more complex types. By the
Page 39 and 40: from the head and leg strings, can
Page 41 and 42: leased Queen’s Hall in Liverpool
Page 43 and 44: effectively capture the nonlinear p
Page 45 and 46: other puppet, is not slack and seem
Page 47 and 48: was already showing considerable ar
Page 49 and 50: The Marionettes in Performance The
Page 51 and 52: of an aged former slave who has esc
Page 53 and 54: The criminal acts and dishonesty de
Page 55 and 56: Antislavery songs in a marionette p
Page 57 and 58: e useful to compare the joke exchan
Page 59 and 60: the figure, once “folded up prepa
Page 61 and 62:
eginning with a wide variety of mar
Page 63 and 64:
Christy Minstrels, with their reper
Page 65 and 66:
Walter E. Deaves Edwin Deaves, Walt
Page 67 and 68:
some images of minstrel players (re
Page 69 and 70:
Yet, one cannot easily reduce the s
Page 71 and 72:
Daniel Meader Sometime after 1874,
Page 73 and 74:
lackface makeup, rather than authen
Page 75 and 76:
figure 12. His hair is slightly hig
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puppets for the last time, he may s
Page 79 and 80:
The Meader Uncle Tom suggests the e
Page 81 and 82:
Chapter III: David Lano The Essence
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lackface characters for ridicule; h
Page 85 and 86:
doctor. Lano then depicts the black
Page 87 and 88:
A colored quartet now sang. They we
Page 89 and 90:
The Career of David Lano While thre
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Lano’s solo career. One of the la
Page 93 and 94:
human oddities. Like many of its ki
Page 95 and 96:
“continually transforms necessity
Page 97 and 98:
David Lano’s Work Lano’s extant
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such as the kakunga of the Suku peo
Page 101 and 102:
The clothes are a curious blend of
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the age of ten, he presented his ow
Page 105 and 106:
Punch murdering the Servant. Lano c
Page 107 and 108:
form by introducing sentimental mus
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creation on the basis of active mot
Page 111 and 112:
divided between the “Sambo” and
Page 113 and 114:
Though they share in the appercepti
Page 115 and 116:
mild embarrassment on his use of Ji
Page 117 and 118:
“The marionette can be anything o
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he [can] find them.” 147 Calthrop
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of the Moor, who is, though still m
Page 123 and 124:
slanted and sharp, the nostrils are
Page 125 and 126:
perhaps the beginning puppeteer, wh
Page 127 and 128:
taken it from playwright Tsou Ku Ch
Page 129 and 130:
figure, who dismisses his complaint
Page 131 and 132:
Thus, the structure of the play pre
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Chapter V: The Majors The major pup
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Bedchamber.” 165 Sarg described:
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Critics and fellow puppeteers prais
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Sarg and Blackface Though Sarg neve
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“Skin me, Brer Fox,” sez Brer R
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possibilities of puppetry led him t
Page 145 and 146:
was common with the so-called “To
Page 147 and 148:
present his particular imaginations
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herself in need of independent econ
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The Essence of Puppetry for Sue Has
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the head to the right and left, to
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art,” and “a descendent of the
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puppeteers to avoid complicated and
Page 159 and 160:
delicate verisimilitude for blackfa
Page 161 and 162:
Remo Bufano: The Local Emcees the E
Page 163 and 164:
Club’s stage (ca 1932) began with
Page 165 and 166:
world culture, including a Medieval
Page 167 and 168:
impressive aspects of elaborate, la
Page 169 and 170:
capture the great variety of black
Page 171 and 172:
tangled a Prime Minister marionette
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program continued with a pair of ne
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no good messin’ aroun’ wid whit
Page 177 and 178:
By inaugurating the action with thi
Page 179 and 180:
lackface stereotypes, but also mark
Page 181 and 182:
Brown’s puppetry work is enigmati
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(Marionette Minstrel Show), and Bru
Page 185 and 186:
and personality for her/his creatio
Page 187 and 188:
Paris’s semiotic choices introduc
Page 189 and 190:
characters were common to the varie
Page 191 and 192:
However, the essential realism of t
Page 193 and 194:
A ninth grade Art Club in Oshkosh,
Page 195 and 196:
the Royal Marionettes, with some re
Page 197 and 198:
slips away with his clothes. The ti
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the same moment, Mumbo commented on
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Munger also introduced a range of a
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minstrelsy. They would also permit
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yo all arrested.” 249 In the same
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exclamation; “Oh, my lan’! Now
Page 209 and 210:
Tom. Simon Legree was a puppet base
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event led to a full season of produ
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comic context of their puppet plays
Page 215 and 216:
epresentations of blacks would cont
Page 217 and 218:
impressive, and touted his enterpri
Page 219 and 220:
clearly believes that some other pu
Page 221 and 222:
of the play to connect with African
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its length (see figure 52). Finally
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O’Neill’s take on Henri Christo
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audiences, then goes on to suggest
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Chesse’s reading of Brutus was th
Page 231 and 232:
meticulous artistic strokes then, c
Page 233 and 234:
Many of the lost objects may have b
Page 235 and 236:
sketches would be well-served by th
Page 237 and 238:
The FTP production of Little Black
Page 239 and 240:
transmitted to, and circulated with
Page 241 and 242:
Conclusion: Phenomenology, Authenti
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the essence of less grotesque black
Page 245 and 246:
used them in plays where puppets ce
Page 247 and 248:
minstrelsy-derived Topsy, as genuin
Page 249 and 250:
productions featuring blackface cha
Page 251 and 252:
_. Race and Ethnic Relations. 3 rd
Page 253 and 254:
Durham, Weldon B. ed. American Thea
Page 255 and 256:
Hill, Errol. Shakespeare in Sable:
Page 257 and 258:
Mahar, William J. Behind the Burnt
Page 259 and 260:
Powell, Herbert Preston. The World'
Page 261 and 262:
Spurling, Laurie. Phenomenology and
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