Puppets

Puppets—in various forms—are everywhere, especially in and around education. And yet we often struggle to consider their function: both what they do and how they do it. This is the “puppet effect”: they both reveal and hide their workings. What can puppets tell us about how we experience?

This reading group looks at both :

1) the broad intersection of puppets and education, and

2) the archival material on puppets in the Teachers College library dating roughly from the 1920’s forward. 

We also, on occasion, may explore hands-on practices, as well as collaborative book writing.

Selected Past/Current Readings

• Mark Down, A Practical Guide to Puppetry

• Carlo Callodi, The Adventures of Pinocchio

• Giorgio Agamben, Pinocchio: The Adventures of a Puppet, Doubly Commented Upon and Triply Illustrated

• Heinrich von Kleist, "On the Marionette Theatre"

• [And Texts from Teachers College Library Archives]

Who: Open to the public

When: Every other Wednesday, 2:30-3:30pm Eastern

Where: Hybrid (Zoom & In-Person @ Columbia University, Teachers College, 5th Fl. Library)

Grace appears most purely in that human form which either

has no consciousness or an infinite consciousness.

That is, in the puppet or in the god.

Heinrich von Kleist

"On the Marionette Theatre"