The Oxymoronic Conditionality of Folk Theater

Folk theater differs fundamentally from art house theater in its homogenous conditionality. This difference is illustrated on all levels by its oxymoronic character, which includes orality based on written form as well as the perception of lifeless puppets based on living characters. Switching between characteristics such as verse and prose, dog and man, or between static and dynamic constitutes the same homogenizing core artistic device and the basic conditional structure of folk theater. This is incompatible with frequent appropriations of mythically based folk theater as “Russian.”