Sicilian Epic and the Marionette Theater

Analyses the folkloric genres that comprise the repertoire of the marionette theatre in Sicily. Here, epic, farce, saints' lives, bandits' lives, fairytales, Christian myth and city legend offer the vehicles by which puppeteers comment upon, inform about - perhaps even negotiate - the relationships among the major classes of Sicilian society: the aristocracy, the people, the clerics and the Mafia.