Reviewed by:

• Japanese Contemporary Objects, Manipulators, and Actors in Performanceby Mari Boyd
• Peter Eckersall

In Japanese Contemporary Objects, Manipulators, and Actors in Performance, the theatre scholar and translator Mari Boyd reconsiders the current discourses on Japanese puppetry. Existing scholarship has often focused on histories, techniques, and repertoires of mainly classical puppetry traditions, such as ningyō jōruri (also known as bunraku), in mainstage city contexts. Regional puppetry traditions, of which there are many extantin Japan, are also studied. Even so, there are many gaps in the documentation and analysis of Japanese puppetry in contemporary Japan and it is these gaps that Boyd’s volume goes a long way to filling.

As the title of her book shows, Boyd’s work responds to the widespread recent attention given to theories of new materialism and object ontology in the performing arts as seen in a slate of publications about performance and new media, performance and ecology, and performance and stage properties. As a result of these studies, that have grown in the shadow of Jane Bennett’s publication of Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Duke University Press, 2009), interest in puppetry studies has substantially increased. The field has moved in new theoretical directions and deals with a wide variety of object-based works that, in many cases, far exceed the aesthetic range and dramaturgy of traditional puppetry. One of the harbingers of this change was the publication, in 2014, of The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance, edited by Dassia Posner, Claudia Orenstein, and John Bell. Their broad-spectrum methodology of applying interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives drawn from history, performance studies, psychology, affect studies, new materialism, and [End Page 224] media and technology studies, underscores the notion of puppetry as an expanded form of media and a defining aspect of material performance. Scholars working on national and regional puppetry forms have been challenged to rethink and expand their methodologies and the scope of their work. In fact, writing in the Companion’s introduction, one of its co-editors, the puppeteer and puppetry scholar, Claudia Orenstein, pithily wonders: “In the world of material performance, why use the term puppet at all?” (2014: 4). Boyd positively responds to this provocation by naming a book about Japanese puppetry without using the cardinal term; the name of “puppet” is strategically elided in the book’s title.

Boyd’s focus in the book is two-fold. There are six chapters on developments in contemporary object performance that highlight trends and innovations and there are three of her own translations of notable object theatre play texts by contemporary artists. The whole is bookended (at least in my PDF review copy) by a choice selection for color images at the beginning of the book and an appendix and select biography at the end.

The first two chapters introduce theories and practices of puppetry in Japan. Boyd gives a succinct history and offers a comparative discussion of cultural and aesthetic developments that include reference to animism and Shinto. The first chapter draws attention to how object performances show “relations between old and new animisms” (p. xv), pointing to a discussion of technologies in later chapters, and includes a section detailing the variety and number of puppetry performances in Japan. Boyd’s analysis shows the rapid increase of the performances made for adult audiences. Chapter 2 deals with the rise of object theatre as a paradigm shift that closes the gap between theatre, performance, and puppetry. Anthropocenic perspectives are explored in which the object and human find a new equilibrium and are decentered. The chapter has a discussion of innovative theatre maker Kuro Tanino and his play Avidya—The Dark Inn (that is also translated, with a commentary, in chapter 9). Boyd shows how, in the hands of visionary artists such as Tanino, object theatre creates entertainingly complex performance worlds that investigate dark themes. Chapter 3 explores how the materiality of objects signals the turn to the real in contemporary performance. The chapter explores the paradoxical notion of the real as a source of rupture that, in turn, can...

审核人：

• Mari Boyd表演中的日本当代物品、操纵者和演员
• 彼得·埃克索尔

在《日本当代物件、操纵者和表演者》一书中，戏剧学者兼翻译玛丽·博伊德重新审视了当前有关日本木偶的话语。现有的学术研究通常侧重于主要古典木偶传统的历史、技术和曲目，例如ningy ō jōruri（也称为bunraku），在主要城市背景下。还研究了许多现存日本的区域木偶传统。尽管如此，当代日本对日本木偶的记录和分析仍然存在许多空白，而博伊德的著作也正是在这些空白上填补了很多空白。

正如她的书名所示，博伊德的作品回应了最近对表演艺术中的新唯物主义和对象本体论理论的广泛关注，正如在一系列关于表演和新媒体、表演和生态以及表演和舞台的出版物中所看到的那样特性。由于这些研究在 Jane Bennett 出版的《充满活力的物质：事物的政治生态学》（杜克大学出版社，2009 年）的阴影下发展起来，人们对木偶戏研究的兴趣大大增加。该领域已经朝着新的理论方向发展，并涉及各种基于对象的作品，在许多情况下，这些作品远远超出了传统木偶的审美范围和戏剧性。这一变化的先兆之一是 2014 年出版的The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance，由 Dassia Posner、Claudia Orenstein 和 John Bell 编辑。他们应用从历史、表演研究、心理学、情感研究、新唯物主义和[End Page 224]中汲取的跨学科理论观点的广谱方法论媒体和技术研究强调了木偶作为媒体的扩展形式和物质表演的定义方面的概念。研究国家和地区木偶戏形式的学者面临重新思考和扩展他们的方法和工作范围的挑战。事实上，在 Companion 的介绍中，它的共同编辑之一、木偶师和木偶学者克劳迪娅·奥伦斯坦（Claudia Orenstein）简洁地想知道：“在物质表演的世界里，为什么要使用木偶这个词呢？” （2014：4）。博伊德通过命名一本关于日本木偶戏的书而不使用基本术语来积极回应这一挑衅。“傀儡”的名字在书名中被战略性地省略了。

博伊德在书中的重点有两个。共有六章介绍当代物件表演的发展，突出趋势和创新，她自己翻译了三本当代艺术家著名的物件戏剧文本。整本书的结尾（至少在我的 PDF 评论副本中）由本书开头的彩色图像选择和结尾的附录和选择传记组成。

前两章介绍日本木偶戏的理论与实践。博伊德给出了一个简洁的历史，并提供了文化和美学发展的比较讨论，包括提到万物有灵论和神道教。第一章关注对象表演如何显示“新旧万物有灵论之间的关系”（第 xv 页），指向后面章节中对技术的讨论，并包括详细介绍日本木偶表演的多样性和数量的部分。博伊德的分析表明，为成年观众制作的表演迅速增加。第 2 章将对象戏剧的兴起作为缩小戏剧、表演和木偶戏之间差距的范式转变。探索了人类世界的观点，其中物体和人类找到了新的平衡并被分散了。Avidya — The Dark Inn（在第 9 章也有翻译，附有评论）。博伊德展示了在塔尼诺等富有远见的艺术家的手中，物件剧院如何创造出有趣而复杂的表演世界，探索黑暗主题。第 3 章探讨了物体的物质性如何标志着当代表演向真实的转变。本章探讨了现实作为破裂源的自相矛盾的概念，反过来，它可以...