Ideology and cultural references in shadow theatre: The case of Karagiozis

Abstract

This paper is an ideological and cultural approach to the Shadow Theatre and in particular an episode of Karagiozis. The shadow theatre is approached as a timeless cross-cultural text, amenable to ideological, sociological and psychoanalytical approaches, while theatrical theatre or some form of folklore is outside its research objectives. Research material is the episode of the Shadow Theatre "Alexander the Great and the Cursed Serpent", as attributed to the VictoryMediaKids channel on the Youtube platform with hundreds of thousands of views. The approach of Karagiozis, through the analysis of the emitted message from the point of view of the popular - collective creator, as well as its reception/acceptance by the general, but also specific, children's, audience defines the different agents of meaning production in this theatrical genre. The starting point for the consideration of the material and the research motivation is the parallelism of dream images (manifest content) with the depictions of shadow theatre.