The monster and the corpse: puppetry and the uncanniness of gender performance

Gates, L ORCID: 0000-0002-9632-2391 (2019) 'The monster and the corpse: puppetry and the uncanniness of gender performance.' In: Astles, C, Mello, A and Orenstein, C, eds. Women and puppetry: critical and historical investigations. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 19-34. ISBN 9780415787390

Abstract

This chapter examines the uncanniness of the apparently neutral (male) puppet body performing as female. Connecting the construction of neutrality to anxieties surrounding contamination, I link this contamination to the monstrous body of the ambiguously female, overflowing in signification. I suggest that while puppetry is a site for gender bias via the myth of neutrality, it also represents a subversive site with the potential to trouble and reveal such identity constructions, through a productive uncanniness that asks us not just to experience, but to linger within the ambiguity of the monstrous body.

Item Type:	Book Chapter or Section
Divisions:	Bath School of Music and Performing Arts
UoA:	Music & Performing Arts
Date Deposited:	15 Jun 2017 14:13
Last Modified:	23 Apr 2026 15:56
URN:	https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/9578

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