Concept

denkste: puppe / just a bit of doll (de:do)
multidisziplinäre zeitschrift für mensch-puppen-diskurse / a multidisciplinary journal for human-doll discourses

de:do is a multidisciplinary journal that is designed as an open platform for scientific and experientially based texts and works as well as for works of art, images, essays and scenic performances about dolls, puppets, and human-like figures.

The phenomenon ‘doll/puppet’ in its ambiguous usability (Philippe Ariès 2003, 135) – be it a material, anthropomorphic artefact, a literary narrative, a figure of thought, a medium or a medial form of expression – serves here as a referential meta-frame for various fields of science, research and application.

It addresses disciplines such as literary studies, art and art history, cultural studies, theatre, film, media and social sciences, psychology, pedagogy, ethnology, anthropology, design, material science, robotics, including their various genres and fields of practice.

Apart from scientific contributions in the section “Focus” concerning the particular thematical focus of the issue, additional types of contributions may be included according to availability, feasibility and originality in the following sections. They should generally include about 5,000 – 15,000 characters. These texts are all subject to an internal reviewing and editing process. They are only partially reviewed externally, only in need of clarification. Even though there is not always a clear distinction between the different sections, the following sections exist:

• Miscellaneous
  This section includes short contributions with a call-specific or more general relevance to the topic and/or references to current topics and research, that may concern details or special aspects, tentative thoughts or similar or raise aspects of artistic creation.

• Essays
  As much as the content is concerned Essays correspond largely to the contributions of the Miscellaneous section, but they are not so much short contributions as textually designed short treatises or essays.

• Interviews
  This section includes interviews with artists or cultural workers, whose works or creations refer to the topic of the metaframe “puppets/dolls” or “puppet/doll discourses”.

• Works of Art
  In individual cases artistic works whether fine arts or literature, may be included.

• Reviews
  Reviews of books as well as discussions of exhibitions and performances are a regular part, here also possibly being overlaps with the section Essays.

• Discussion Forum
  Contributions containing theories which are pointed or can be discussed controversially may not simply be published in the miscellaneous section but may explicitly be put up to discussion in this section.

• Announcements
  Additionally professional associations with a scientific, artistic or applied and use-oriented background have the possibility to announce events, exhibitions, projects, intended publications, etc.

Are human-doll discourses a viable science-based topic?

Dolls/puppets in all their manifestations and kinds of materiality, as literary and medial products, as anthropomorphic figures with human features, as toys, hand puppets, marionettes, art figures, robots etc., made of wood, plush, plastic, metal, paper and above all: created from imagination and fantasy, dolls/puppets represent a “void in academic discourse” (Yoko Tawada, 2000, 5). Although existing as long as can be remembered and being “closely integrated into the fabric of human life” (Gundel Mattenklott 2014, 29), dolls/puppets, these ancient and ubiquitous “pilgrims” from the world of things and artefacts (Kenneth Gross 2009, 187), are in a peculiar way pejoratively connotated with an aura of childishness and triviality.

The fact that human-doll relationships represent a multi-layered and discursive subject in the academic environment was well documented at an interdisciplinary and international doll conference entitled Dolls/Puppets – Human Companions in Children’s Worlds and Imaginary Spaces (Insa Fooken and Jana Mikota 2014). The fascinating ambiguity of the doll/puppet as an object of knowledge, its existence between dead matter and animated liveliness, its oscillation between seemingly inferior toys and archaic symbolic meaning showed that dolls/puppets are more than ‘just dolls/puppets’ – they are mirrors and projection surfaces of human life contexts (Jürgen Fritz 1992).

de:do is located at the “Forschungsstelle Schrift-Kultur” (Research Centre Writing Culture at the University of Siegen). It is an open access online journal with peer review in which German and English contributions are welcome.

The first issue was published in May 2018 with a thematic focus on dolls/puppets in threat scenarios. The second issue on dolls as miniatures – more than small was published in May 2019. The third issue on the topic puppen/dolls like mensch – dolls as artificial people was published as a double issue in 2020 (Part 1.1 and Part 1.2). The fourth edition was published in 2021: Dolls/puppets as soulmates – biographical traces of dolls/puppets in art, literature, work and performance.

The current call for papers can be found here.

de:do is supported by Universitätsverlag Siegen – universi, where also a parallel printed edition is published.

References
Ariès, Philippe (2003, 15. Aufl.). Geschichte der Kindheit. München: dtv.
Fooken, Insa, Mikota, Jana (Hg.) (2014). Puppen – Menschenbegleiter in Kinderwelten und imaginären Räumen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Fritz, Jürgen (1992). Spiele als Spiegel ihrer Zeit: Glücksspiele, Tarot, Puppen, Videospiele. Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald.
Gross, Kenneth (2009). "The Madness of Puppets". The Hopkins Review, 2 (2), 182-205.
Mattenklott, Gundel (2014). "Heimlich-unheimliche Puppe: Ein Kapitel zur Beseelung der Dinge". In: Insa Fooken, Jana Mikota (Hg.), Puppen – Menschenbegleiter in Kinderwelten und imaginären Räumen (S. 29-42). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Tawada, Yoko (2000). Spielzeug und Sprachmagie in der europäischen Literatur. Eine ethnologische Poetologie. Tübingen: Konkursbuch Verlag.