Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book employs methodological approaches and theoretical models that facilitate the analysis of puppet theatre and women’s place in that work. It explores “The Monster and the Corpse: Puppetry and the Uncanniness of Gender Performance,” Laura Purcell-Gates challenges the notion of the neutral body through a feminist analysis of what it means to construct and read the female body onstage. The book offers brief accounts of specific social histories, barriers, and gender biases that women have faced and the opportunities afforded female creative leaders to appropriate, revive, and transform performance traditions.