Dolls appear in leading and supporting roles in the work of the German children’s book author (and illustrator) Tony Schumacher (1848-1931). Schumacher was an extremely popular writer in the 19th century who published dozens of books as well as being a collector of antique furniture, nativity figures and much more. In her autobiographical writings, this largely forgotten author places a particular emphasis on her collection of more than 200 dolls which undergo interesting narrative and pictural transformations. The playful approach of the author and illustrator with both individual dolls and doll collectives is analyzed and subtly coordinated with the narrative content and its visualization providing examples of images and texts from the period between 1885 and 1930 which are classified biographically and historically.

In the theater production Unheimliches Tal / Uncanny Valley (2018) by Thomas Melle and Stefan Kaegi (Rimini Protokoll), an animatronic double of the writer and playwright Thomas Melle, who suffers from bipolar disorder, acts on stage and gives an autobiographical lecture in his place. Melle’s experience of illness is taken as the basis for a lecture-performance, the central object of which seems to be the technically animated doll itself, which on the one hand functions as the actor of the autobiographical lecture and on the other hand is repeatedly exhibited in its objecthood. Following on from Eva Illouz’s research on the emergence and effect of a therapeutic discourse, this contribution pursues the reading of Unheimliches Tal / Uncanny Valley as a way of performing the self through therapy. This is both effectively produced and artistically sharpened, and its ambivalence is demonstrated and reflected.

Reviews of Jean Nathan: "The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll. The Search for Dare Wright" and Brook Ashley: "Dare Wright and the Lonely Doll. A Biography"

Puppet theater represents a widespread, though little researched motif in the ‘Bildungsroman’ with regard to its function within the diegesis. According to the reading of this paper, however, puppet theater is ascribed a determinant effect within the diegesis, and its sense-making character is examined more closely. To this end, questions are asked about the introduction of the doll and puppet theater motif in the novel, about parallels between the exemplary works, about reciprocal relationships - also to the life of the respective authors, Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Thomas Mann - as well as about the nature of the dolls/puppets and their metaphorical significance for the context of the novel.

Against the background of her own family constellation and migration biography Kristiane Balsevicius reflects on the significance of early experiences with dolls/puppets and puppeteering in childhood and adolescence for her artistic development as a puppeteer, director and head of a puppet theater. Looking back, it becomes clear that early emotions and play themes (e.g., belongingness, yearning, self-determination, love) are recurrently processed and artistically transformed in very differently designed doll/puppet figures and productions for children and adults.

Letters of a doll – written by Franz Kafka as a consolation for a girl who has lost her doll in a Berlin park and is crying? This episode passed down orally by Kafka's last companion Dora Diamant from the time they spent together in Berlin shortly before his death proves – despite or because of its unclear truth content – to be a source of literary-poetic inspiration for writers over a period of more than sixty years. This article explores this phenomenon and thus the literary response to a 'very different' Kafka in many of these texts.

The following article is an examination of the video work Resusci Anne (2019/2020) by Ida Kammerloch, which can be viewed exclusively via the link at the end of the contribution. In close collaboration, artist Ida Kammerloch and curator Mona Hesse have created a commentary on the film composed of film stills, graphics, background information and notes.

Review of Anna Katharina Hahn: Out and Away

The following contribution is a description of an artistic work – a street performance in which my dearest doll from childhood became an expressive object, an animated figure that helped me to elaborate theoretical ideas for my doctoral research. I never knew how to play with dolls until I took this doll with me to the street and treated her as co-actor. In addition to the description of this performance the text includes an analysis of animating this doll based on the theory with its main components (mode, location, aspect) developed for my thesis.

The Lizard and Michael Hatzius interviewed