ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

and amateur artists, and serious, albeit racialized, art for exotic tales of the Far East and
mythic stories from New Orleans legend. He may have advocated all puppetry, but his
appeceptions of blackface puppets led to an essence that helped contribute to the cultural
divide still born by modern puppeteers. That cultural divide relegates most puppetry to
schools and children’s entertainment. Only occasional works have the privilege of being
accepted in the mainstream.
The coming chapter focuses on four major puppeteers: Tony Sarg, Susan
Hastings, Remo Bufano, and Forman Brown. In it, this categorical division in the eidos
of blackface puppetry will prove to have considerable impact on the careers of four of the
most famous and successful American puppeteers. Each adopted, refined, or undermined
the categorical division according to her/his unique essence of puppetry, as well as
her/his specific essence of blackface puppetry.
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