Emeline Rotolo: research residency in February

Emeline Rotolo will be in residence from 12 to 28 February (then from 14 to 18 April).

Emeline Rotolo is in charge of the archives relating to music, the performing arts and cinema at the Archives nationales de France. She is also working on a doctoral thesis in history at the École Pratique des Hautes Études on puppet shows in Paris and Bordeaux in the first half of the 19th century, under the supervision of Jean-Claude Yon (PSL/EPHE/SAPRAT).

The research residency is devoted to continuing the writing of this project thanks to access to the specialist resources held by the Centre de Documentation et des Collections du Pôle International de la Marionnette.

This thesis focuses on a pivotal period in the transformation of puppet shows. By comparing two urban spaces, we can identify the place of these shows in Paris and in a major provincial city, Bordeaux, at a time when the supply of puppet shows was tightly controlled and monitored by the State. Relegated to the status of ‘curiosity shows’ and forced to be mobile, the majority of these puppet shows remained fairground shows, although a few were able to gain access to city venues. Although they were overshadowed by other artistic practices, puppet shows were still very much a part of the Romantic revolution, and continued to bear witness to their time. The iconography, terminology and conditions of performance specific to the puppet arts and the puppeteer were recomposed. In addition to the aesthetic evolution of the shows and therefore of the puppet object, this period is also an opportunity to question the creative gesture of the puppeteer.