Puppets and "Popular" Culture

Shershow examines an astonishing range of texts and performers - from Ben Jonson to Jim Henson, from Plato to Punch and Judy, from Enlightenment essays to works by the modernist avant-garde. He shows that the many forms of puppet theater which have flourished on the margins of social life in the carnival, fairground, and marketplace - have been both disparaged and celebrated by authors attempting to demonstrate their own legitimate or literary status.