German Studies Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Throughout the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century, the work of Germanspeaking dramatists, theatre directors and artists reveals a distinct fascination with puppets and marionettes: for some, these figures provided an apt metaphor for the individual in a rapidly changing society, with the strings of the marionette symbolising a lack of control and agency. Others displayed a less pessimistic preoccupation with the expressive physicality of performing figures, praising puppets and marionettes as superior to egotistical living actors and employing them in Gesamtkunstwerk projects aimed at the 'retheatricalisation' of contemporary theatre. 1 And, for a significant number, performing figures provided a vehicle for the staging of modish themes of gender identity and sexual conflict: my paper analyses the work of the Munich-based doll and puppet maker, Lotte Pritzel, whose choreographed wax figurines present an under-studied engagement with contemporary gender roles. Departing from an analysis of the aesthetic qualities of performing figures, I examine how these distinctive qualities proved especially conducive to the staging of gender, drawing upon contemporary (and often misogynistic) understandings of sexual difference as well as theories of gender as a performative act. In assessing Pritzel's work, I highlight the artist's use of codified corporeal gesture to 'construct' gender in her tableaux series, and her explicit thematisation of the relationship between performer and observer: through presenting her wax figurines as performing bodies, Pritzel encourages the viewer to recognise possible parallels between the 'performance' of gender within the tableaux, and in their daily lives, allowing for the possibility of a more critical engagement with normative gender roles. The Aesthetics of the Puppet If performing figures can be said to share a single, overarching characteristic, it is their status as overtly artificial simulacra of the human body: whilst the human form of the puppet or marionette is immediately recognisable to the viewer, encouraging a sense of identification with the figure on stage, this instinctive recognition is mitigated by the overt artificiality of performing figures (particularly in those instances where strings or joints are plainly visible), establishing a distance between the viewer and the figure on stage. This tension between recognition and alienation is distinctive, with Steve Tillis defining the ontological status of puppets and bodies: the movements of hysteric female patients were often compared to those of marionettes, with clinicians and hypnotists presented as puppeteers, 8 and a misogynistic presentation of 'man as marionette', controlled by his female lover, can be identified in Oskar Kokoschka's play Sphinx und Strohmann. In the tableaux of Lotte Pritzel, however, wax figurines function as literal replicas of the living body, with their movements mirroring the corporeal construction of gender among living human beings. In Pritzel's tableaux, wax figurines are used to present exaggerated scenes of sexual conflict, physically enacting gendered power dynamics through corporeal gesture. It should be noted that the artist herself rejected the perceived 'intellectualisation' of her work: 9 however, without wishing to falsely ascribe specific artistic intent, her tableaux offer the possibility of a critical engagement with contemporary understandings of gender. Whether a conscious or unconscious decision, Pritzel's presentation of figurines who are watched by other characters makes clear the status of the puppet as an actor to be observed, revealing the performative nature of their gendered movements, and inviting the viewer to reflect upon the parallels between the staging of sexualised, gendered behaviours in the tableaux and the use of physical gesture to express gender identity in daily life. The Puppets of Lotte Pritzel Lotte Pritzel was born in 1887 in Breslau, Silesia, moving to Munich at the age of 18. Despite a lack of formal training, her wax figurines attracted considerable attention in the period around 1910-1930. As a key member of Schwabing's bohemian circles, the artist enjoyed considerable prestige within avant-garde groups whilst also successfully marketing her work to bourgeois collectors as decorative objects for the home, publishing several photo-series of her staged tableaux in the Darmstädter Zeitschrift für Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration. Whilst Pritzel's artistic output spans several decades, I focus on her 1910 series, Puppen für die Vitrine, in which her figurines enact exaggerated, gendered scenes of sexual conflict, with the status of the figurines as overtly artificial, performative bodies frequently made explicit.