THE ONTOLOGICAL STATUS AND POLITICAL FUNCTION OF THE PUPPET BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH

Sağlam Y. S. P.

MEETCON ANATOLIA II. INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF SOCIAL AND HUMAN SCIENCES, İstanbul, Türkiye, 17 - 19 Şubat 2026, cilt.1, sa.1, ss.1, (Özet Bildiri)

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
  • Cilt numarası: 1
  • Basıldığı Şehir: İstanbul
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1
  • İstanbul Yeni Yüzyıl Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

THE ONTOLOGICAL STATUS AND POLITICAL FUNCTION OF THE PUPPET BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH

 

Res. Asst. Yağmur Sevim PARİM SAĞLAM

Istanbul Yeni Yuzyil University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Performing Arts, Istanbul, Turkey

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4092-1341

yagmur.saglam@yeniyuzyil.edu.tr +90 507 582 45 59

 

ABSTRACT

The puppet is neither considered a living body nor a corpse. It lacks vitality, yet because it moves, speaks, and produces action on stage, it cannot be considered dead in a dramaturgical sense. Positioned on the threshold between life and death, this figure continuously carries a post-mortem state of existence. Through this liminalization, it circulates death on stage. The puppet can be killed, dismembered, hanged, destroyed. This transforms death from a singular and final state into a repeatable, cyclical, and manageable one. The study argues that the puppet's suspended ontological status makes visible the mechanisms of necropolitics, and that this constitutes a political function of puppet theatre.

Key Words: Political Theatre; Puppet Theatre; Necropolitics