Decline and emergence : puppet types from tradition to modern reinterpretations

Trefalt, Uroš (author)

The study focuses on the transformation of traditional puppet characters within the cultural space of Central Europe, with particular attention to the Slovenian context. It analyses the ideological, aesthetic and social implications of these changes. Challenging the linear narrative of cultural evolution, the author instead highlights the loss of the carnivalesque principle – marked by grotesqueness, ambivalence and subversion – as a critical cultural shift. Through a comparative lens on the Czech Kašpárek and Slovenian figures such as Gašperček, Jurček and Pavliha, the study reveals how ideological pressures and the absence of historical continuity led to the infantilisation and neutralisation of these characters’ critical potential. The text emphasises that these figures are not merely forms of entertainment but function as cultural archetypes that mediate memory, identity and resistance. Ultimately, the study argues that tradition cannot be replaced by formal construction and that aesthetic domestication is symptomatic of a deeper societal transformation.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Central European puppetry, carnivalesque, Slovenian puppet types, trickster puppet characters, subversion and resistance, deological domestication, cultural memory
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: AGRFT - Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 288-305
• Numbering: Letn. 14, št. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-188393
• UDC: 792.97(497.4:437.3):316.74
• ISSN on article: 1855-4539
• DOI: 10.51937/Amfiteater-2026-1/288-306
• COBISS.SI-ID: 289125891
• Publication date in RUL: 22.09.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Amfiteater : revija za teorijo scenskih umetnosti
• Publisher: Akademija za gledališče, radio, film in televizijo, Društvo gledaliških kritikov in teatrologov Slovenije, Akademija za gledališče, radio, film in televizijo, Društvo gledaliških kritikov in teatrologov Slovenije, Akademija za gledališče, radio, film in televizijo, Slovenski gledališki inštitut, Slovenski gledališki inštitut, = Slovenian Theatre Institute, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani, = University of Ljubljana Press
• ISSN: 1855-4539
• COBISS.SI-ID: 239685632

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
• Description: A Creative Commons license that bans commercial use and requires the user to release any modified works under this license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Zaton in vznik

Abstract

Razprava analizira transformacijo tradicionalnih lutkovnih likov v srednjeevropskem kulturnem prostoru s poudarkom na slovenskem kontekstu. V ospredje postavlja njihove ideološke, estetske in družbene implikacije ter zavrača linearni model kulturnega razvoja. Namesto tega kot ključen premik identificira razgradnjo karnevalskega načela, zaznamovanega z grotesknostjo, ambivalentnostjo in subverzivnostjo. S primerjalno analizo češkega Kašpárka in slovenskih likov (Gašperček, Jurček, Pavliha) pokaže, kako so ideološki pritiski in prekinitev zgodovinske kontinuitete prispevali k infantilizaciji ter nevtralizaciji njihovega kritičnega potenciala. Lutkovni liki so obravnavani kot kulturni arhetipi, ki posredujejo kolektivni spomin, identitetne formacije in oblike odpora. Razprava sklene, da tradicije ni mogoče substituirati s formalnimi konstrukti ter da estetska domestikacija odraža globlje družbene transformacije.

• Keywords: srednjeevropsko lutkarstvo, karnevalskost, slovenski lutkovni tipi, triksterski liki, subverzija in odpor, ideološka domestikacija, kulturni spomin