Divining the Plaything. the Relevance of Puppets and Dolls in a Contemporary, Adult Culture

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2016 in the subject Art - Art Theory, General, grade: 1, University for the Creative Arts, language: English, abstract: This text aims to explore the longstanding relevancy of puppets and dolls and considering the idea that the humanoid figurine could present itself as a vessel for a soul. The ‘soul’ is an ambiguous and elusive topic which remains as slippery and hard to pin down as ever; nevertheless, this flexibility allows for one’s perception of the world to shape what one may consider a soul to be. The text touches on ideas of play, fear, dolls, puppets and their use for ‘saying what cannot be said’, immortality, the notion of the soul and its transience, dolls and their use as surrogates, ball jointed dolls and objects of desire.