Pinocchio and his siblings

In this contribution, I would like to present some puppets and marionettes. Although they currently seem to have taken a back seat in today’s highly technological world, in the past they were bearers of important messages, often the only voice of protest against those in power. As is well known, in Collodi’s novel when Pinocchio enters the puppet theatre, the puppets stop the show by shouting ‘It’s our brother Pinocchio!’ Therefore, the various puppets and marionettes can be considered as Pinocchio’s siblings. While I cannot mention them all, I will highlight a few notable figures, particularly those rooted in Central and Eastern European culture and literature. These include the Czech puppet Kašparek, the Hungarian Vitéz László and the well-known Russian puppet Petrushka. I will also recall some puppets that appeared as protagonists in literary works, especially in Slovak children’s books and in the Russian novel Zolotoy klyuchik ( The Golden Key ) by Aleksey Tolstoy – a work still too often mistaken as a Russian translation of Collodi’s novel. Finally, I will briefly mention Pinocchio’s contemporary ‘brothers’ – figures not made of wood or paper but often of metal.