On the Bookshelf

A model in a photograph stands behind a chair, arm extended, gazing upon her suitor, who is bending low to kiss her hand. But look more closely, and you’ll notice that her hand seems to be going through the back of the chair—because it is detached, and the model is a mannequin. 

The 1978 Helmut Newton photograph Upstairs at Maxim’s first appeared in a fashion magazine and is now featured on the cover of Uncanny Creatures: Doll Thinking in Modern German Culture, by Christophe Koné. 

Published by University of Michigan Press in July, the book explores the ability of dolls—including mannequins and puppets—to provoke feelings of disorientation and uncertainty, says Koné, an associate professor of German at Williams. 

This sense of the uncanny has been written about by psychiatrists such as Ernst Jentsch and Sigmund Freud, who focused on the fear and mystery surrounding dolls and the scientific reasons they might elicit such reactions. Koné, however, makes the case that dolls also bring out, through this sense of the uncanny, feelings of playfulness, desire and irony. Our capacity to grasp the situation “does not rely on reason and understanding but rather on imagination and fantasy,” he writes in the book’s prologue. His term “doll thinking” describes an in-between state in which one is uncertain about what is real and unreal, allowing for greater creativity among viewers and participants.

Koné’s research for the book took him to France, Germany and Austria, where he examined artifacts—from a wooden doll featured in a short story to dolls made of wax and papier-mâché. He also interviewed doll makers, museum curators and scholars.

Koné joined the German department at Williams in 2013 and has taught courses such as “Dolls, Puppets and Automatons” and “German Comics” in addition to classes in the graduate program in the history of art at the Clark Art Institute. He has served as the director of the Oakley Center for Humanities and Social Sciences since July 2023. 

See more books from the Williams community at today.williams.edu/books.

Photograph, at top, copyright 2022 Helmet Newton Foundation