Text and Performance Quarterly

ISSN: 1046-2937 (Print) 1479-5760 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtpq20

American Puppet Modernism: Essays on the

Material World in Performance

Stephen J. Lind

To cite this article: Stephen J. Lind (2011) American Puppet Modernism: Essays on the
Material World in Performance, Text and Performance Quarterly, 31:4, 456-458, DOI:
10.1080/10462937.2011.603835

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10462937.2011.603835

Published online: 14 Sep 2011.

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456 The Year in Books

Reggaeton’’ (9). This chapter reviews both media constructions of Latina/o in popular culture and
critical discourse from Latina/o communication and cultural studies scholars in order to outline the
difficulties and possibilities of a pan-Latina/o identity capable of implementing social and material
change for ‘‘Latino’’ subjects.
Closing the book, Calafell’s ‘‘Final Thoughts’’ considers the desires, goals, and limitations of
theorizing about Latina/o performativity, rhetoric, and culture. Latina/o Communication Studies:
Theorizing Performance is the first book within the field of communication studies to map the
terrain of Latina/o performance. It asks readers to challenge the blackwhite dichotomy operating
in both popular and scholarly discussions of race and ethnicity (138). Through theories of the flesh,
this work demonstrates the many contours of Latina/o identity, and its effect on performance,
rhetoric, and culture.
Calafell’s landmark work is important for performance and communication studies scholars for
many reasons, but I am particularly drawn to the ways in which she encourages Latina/o scholars to
give voice to their own marginalized knowledge. As a queer Chicano scholar who is among the
18,000 couples married before the passage of California’s Proposition 8 in 2008, I am working on an
autohistoria that considers resistance and agency at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and
the law. Calafell helps me to see the importance of articulating rhetoric and performance, of helping
my reader to feel, not just think, my text, and of understanding that scholarship is but one form of
the embodied art of living. I could not have felt the quality of my voice without hearing hers.

ROBERT GUTIERREZ
San José State University

John Bell, American Puppet Modernism: Essays on the Material World in Performance. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 292 pp.

John Bell’s American Puppet Modernism (APM), published in 2008 by Palgrave Macmillan as part of
its ‘‘Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History’’ series, is an instantly canonical text for
puppetry studies while making a solid case for being much more. Written in a style that is widely
expansive and yet still intricately narrow, Bell’s work is easily one of the best histories of American
puppetry to date. This work, however, is much more than just a timeline of American puppetry,
speaking to the broader contexts of performance studies and sociopolitics in a novel manner that
deserves the attention of disciplines across the humanities.
In APM, Bell gives an account of roughly two centuries of change in American puppet theater.
Dividing the work into twelve chapters, such as ‘‘Shalako Puppets and Nineteenth-Century Ritual,’’
‘‘Puppets and Propaganda: 1930s Parades in New York City,’’ and ‘‘Beyond the Cold War: Bread and
Puppet Theater at the End of the Century,’’ Bell’s primary goal is to chronicle the oft-overlooked
field of American puppetry*a goal that he soundly accomplishes. Early in the volume, for instance,
is one of Bell’s most provocative chapters, where he explains how early American ethnographers
struggled to grasp the important meaning and functionality in the performing objects of native
Zuni rituals. Bell’s significant attention to Native American puppetry serves as a great corrective in
puppetry literature, and it stands as a representative moment whereby Bell is able to demonstrate
his subject matter’s vibrancy, despite contemporary academia’s under-appreciation of the study of
the art. The real theoretical weight to this history, however, comes with Bell’s way of explaining the
history of American puppetry as part of a recursive relationship with the history of American
modernism. Additionally, by invoking the term ‘‘performing object,’’ Bell clearly seeks to propel a
broader understanding of puppetry beyond the traditional view that limits the study to hand-
puppets and marionettes. Although political motivations may lie at the heart of this choice, Bell is
successful in making even his discussion of the American automobile seem like appropriate subject
 The Year in Books 457

matter for the work. The third goal of APM comes in the first and last chapters, where Bell
endeavors to account for the communicative force of the material world through brief metaphysical
and psychoanalytic explanations. While Bell does not accomplish this latter goal with the same
effectiveness as the others, the work is nonetheless an overall success.
Though reading the book from start to finish is clearly the way Bell intends readers to engage his
work, APM still offers multiple entry points, allowing those not well versed (or even all that
interested) in puppetry to find a connective thread that draws them in. With his well justified use of
the term ‘‘performing objects’’ to expand the scope of his analysis, Bell covers a wide variety of
topics, from shadow puppetry to muscle cars, Star Wars to AIDS activism. His theoretical starting
places are rather inclusive, utilizing Derrida, Foucault, Marx, Freud, and numerous others to help
explain how performing objects functioned throughout American history. Despite puppetry being a
rarely studied subject, even within theater departments, APM clearly establishes the viability of the
study from any number of disciplinary perspectives or academic backgrounds. Though the work is
intended for academic audiences, lay audiences may still find Bell’s discussions of special effects in
film and Jim Henson’s Muppets to be accessible reads.
Bell’s approach, however, is not without limitations. First, the exposition in each chapter is
flooded with sweeping references to numerous political, economic, theatrical, and cultural events
and individuals. Readers can easily find themselves deep in Bell’s endnotes with more questions
than answers after reading any given passage. This is not to say that Bell does not explain his
material well, but rather that his rich approach requires certain amounts of distillation that he
hopes readers will see as heuristically valuable instead of textually limited. Additionally, because of
the variety of connections that Bell continuously draws, readers may find the book to be somewhat
self-referential around its midpoint. A devoted reader, however, may find the vast variety of
information to be a strength of the work, not a weakness.
A second limitation appears because as Bell endeavors to cover broadly implicated issues, even if
through particular and narrow exemplars, he must inevitably leave certain material out of his work.
The text leaves room for deeper explorations of topics such as industry prejudices, vaudeville
extravagance, and mid-century American ‘‘happenings.’’ Given that Bell seeks to avoid a hegemonic
linear narrative, the topical instances that are unpacked could certainly be replaced by any number
of alternative stories, such as that of Bil Baird or Julie Taymor*a fact that Bell acknowledges.
Enacted through the cases he chooses to highlight, Bell’s fight for the legitimacy of the study of
performing objects does result in an overly laudatory approach to the discussion. It may be that Bell
is simply too awestruck by his own field to note any truly negative moments in its history, but it is
more likely that he instead elects not to give critics any more reason to ignore, dislike, or distrust
the performative practices.
Although these limitations are important to recognize, they are easily explained as justifiable
necessities. APM, however, does suffer from two distinct flaws. The first is a lack of images. Works of
such an academic nature are not typically seen as reliant on pictures, but a treatment of the history of
puppetry is one such work that calls for visual representation. In APM, subtitled ‘‘Essays on the
Material World in Performance’’ (italics added), much of the explanation is devoted to descriptions
of the sociopolitical landscape, and this reader would like to have seen more in-depth verbal
descriptions of the objects themselves, in order to supplement the small handful of visual images
present. The limited visuality does not detract from the historical substance within the work, but it
appears to be a missed opportunity, and does make for a disconnection between the subject matter,
the intended audience, and even the subtitle.
The subtitle also points to another bittersweet flaw in the work. The work is bookended with
overt discussions of materiality*first with a psychoanalytic treatment of the living and dead worlds
of performers and performing objects and then closing with a comparison between the materiality
of puppets made by legends Jim Henson and Peter Schumann. These sections tease at some
458 The Year in Books

intriguing theorizing of puppetry (part of the field that is the most under-developed), but the rest
of the book seems to operate in different space-time, making almost no references to such
materiality theorizing. Though the connective nodes are certainly there for later study, Bell makes
surprisingly few connections himself between the opening treatment and the rest of his history.
Overall, Bell’s work is a solid piece of scholarship on performing objects. As a well-read historian
and experienced puppeteer, Bell makes an important contribution to the study of puppetry and
beyond.

STEPHEN J. LIND
Clemson University