Overview

In its exploration of puppetry and animation as the performative media of choice for mastering the art of illusion, To Embody the Marvelous engages with early modern notions of wonder in religious, artistic, and social contexts. From jointed, wood-carved figures of Christ, saintly marionettes that performed hagiographical dramas, experimental puppets and automata in Cervantes' Don Quixote, and the mechanical sets around which playwright CalderÓn de la Barca devised secular magic shows to deconstruct superstitions, these historical and fictional artifacts reenvisioned religious, artistic, and social notions that led early modern society to critically wrestle with enchantment and disenchantment. The use of animated performance objects in Spanish theatrical contexts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries became one of the most effective pedagogical means to engage with civil society. Regardless of social strata, readers and spectators alike were caught up in a paradigm shift wherein belief systems were increasingly governed by reason-even though the discursive primacy of supernatural doxa and Christian wonder remained firmly entrenched. Thanks to their potential for motion, religious and profane puppets, automata, and mechanical stage props deployed a rationalized sense of wonder that illustrates the relationship between faith and reason, reevaluates the boundaries of fiction in art and entertainment cultures, acknowledges the rise of science and technology, and questions normative authority.

Full Product Details

Author:   Esther Fernández
Publisher:   Vanderbilt University Press
Imprint:   Vanderbilt University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 22.80cm
Weight:   0.400kg
ISBN:  

9780826501790

ISBN 10:   0826501796
Pages:   224
Publication Date:   30 July 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Stages of Animation Chapter 1 Mechanics of Reductionism Socio-political Ticking Pious Technologies The Lives of Shadows Chapter 2 Matters of God Beyond the Altar Towards the Holy Puppet Handling the Descent The Jointed Christ Figure Reimagined Chapter 3 Articulating Saintliness Wooden Saints The Archeology of the MÁquina Real Modern Object-Centric Sainthood Chapter 4 Unruly Puppets The Estrangement of Illusions Operatizing the Puppet Disarticulated Remediations Chapter 5 Technologies of Wonder Making Wonderlands Enchantment Interrupted Modern Re-enchantments Chapter 6 Trapdoors to DesengaÑo Barely Humans Animated Thresholds Spatial Prosthetics Secret Passageways Refurbished Conclusion When Statues Move Work cited Index

Reviews

There is an extraordinary interdisciplinarity within the work. The complexity of the detail of technical, philosophical, and metaphorical aspects described is very strong. . . . I have never read anything quite like this before. - Cariad Astles, coeditor of Women and Puppetry: Critical and Historical Investigations

Author Information

Esther FernÁndez is an associate professor in the department of modern and classical literatures and cultures at Rice University.

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