ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

productions exist (a few marionettes by one artist, a few plays by another). The available
evidence is sufficient to support a tentative reading of the meanings of the objects, both
the meanings understood by their creators and audiences, and the meanings that might be
drawn by a twenty-first century observer. At the same time, reasonable limits must be
placed on the analytical project, especially where primary source material is in short
supply.
While there is as much variety of puppet essences in this sixty-seven-year history
as there are names of puppeteers, there are a handful of historical threads that weave
many of the artists together. These threads are the overarching essences of puppetry
practice (tendencies rather than universal or transcendent qualities) that span decades but
are adapted to the specific needs of particular productions. The most visible of these is
the overarching essence of exaggeration. Since blackface puppetry has its origins in a
marionette reconstruction of the minstrel show, the essence of exaggeration that is
fundamental to much puppet theatre becomes inextricably linked to humor. Throughout
the history, the most grotesque blackface puppets seem accepted as natural agents of
minstrel buffoonery, while less exaggerated images tend to be employed in plays that
purport to showcase authentic black life. The less the puppeteers wish their “negro
puppets” to play the fool, the more likely they are to try to shape their vestiges within the
boundaries of photographic realism.
While many of the very definitions of humor include the terms “exaggerate” or
“exaggeration,” theorists have investigated the use of exaggeration in humor at length.
Experts have explained exaggeration as targeted ridicule, an attempt to make the subject
seem ludicrous in order to empower its opposite. The delight referred to as “laughter” is
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