ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

suggestion of white oppression. The audience is encouraged to see Brer Fox’s false
charm as a symbolic reference to the efforts of white society to couch its domination of
blacks in amiable language. Their suspicions would be confirmed by Brer Dog’s
chastizement of Sis Goose: “We, he ain’t de kind uv man Ah laks fer de lady Ah pays
court ter, ter be hangin’ roun’ wid! Low-down trash-er bamboozlin’ you wid his
flattersome words.” 256 When Brer Rabbit defeats Brer Fox with his usual guile, this time
using a bag of clothes sculpted to look like Sis Goose, the audience has been fully
prepared to cheer the triumph of African American ingenuity over white deception.
Efforts on the part of white puppeteers to introduce black culture to puppet
productions were too seldom to be referred to as anything more than complications in an
overall field that is properly called blackface puppetry. Nonetheless, the great body of
blackface puppet productions had some very interesting complications, leading to:
transformations of the meanings in traditional puppet minstrel shows caused by the
introduction of newer texts, the potential integration of African American music to
blackface fictions, anti-racist themes, and experiments with presenting puppet
productions of black folklore.
Most puppeteers adapted to the demands of the general categories. Even the
occasional innovations were strongly influenced by the heritage of minstrelsy. The
stereotyped exaggerations of minstrel puppets found their way into productions of Little
Black Sambo and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and were not merely phenomena of minstrel
puppet shows. Yet, even while puppeteers understood that local blackface
puppets=lowbrow/comic and exotic blackface puppets=highbrow/serious, many used the
256 Ibid., 9.
205