THE SOOTY SHOW LAID BEAR - CHILDREN, PUPPETS AND MAKE-BELIEVE

This article seeks to examine the complex nature of pretence as portra yed in a popular UK children's television puppet show. Central to the various theoretical concerns with make-believe philosophical, psycholo gical and lucid - has been the phenomenological axis of the 'real-imag inary'. Because of the serial types of transformations undertaken by c haracters in the programme and the reliance placed on natural models o f conversation, the problematic nature of this core boundary is highli ghted. Despite its overt status as a fictional representation of anima l behaviour, the very animality of the puppets is rendered opaque as t heir identities as children are linguistically accomplished. As a cons equence we argue that the show as a piece of representational art is s tructured by moral and behavioural dictates typical of conventional ad ult-child interaction.