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Abstract:

The article is devoted to the rethinking of the concept of “imitative” puppet theater in the modern Belarusian theatrical art in the relationship with the ideas of the romantic writers. The historical concept of the puppet theater as the art of “animation” of an artificial body, likened to a living person, and the polar ideas of the romantic writers (A. Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, E.T.A. Hoffman, Jean-Paul, etc.), in whose works the images of animated dolls and automata were developed as the embodiment of evil, forces hostile to man and life is considered. The productions of modern Belarusian directors A. Leliavsky, O. Zhiugzhda, E. Korniag, in which the directors stopped attempts to create the illusion of a revived puppet, imitate life and emphasized the nature of a puppet as inanimate matter are analyzed. In these directors’ works, a puppet, an artificial body or its fragments are used to represent a dead body, create an image of a “dead” soul, dying, deadly for a living or monstrous nature of the characters. It has been concluded that such use of puppets and fragments of artificial bodies testifies to not only that the modern Belarusian directors have rejected the idea of the “imitative” puppet theater, but also that they have deeply rethought the ideas of the romantic writers.