Mannequins: Kulturgeschichtliche, semiotische und ästhetische Aspekte der Schaufensterpuppe im Film

In this paper, I will show that the cultural and semantic history of the mannequin (or shop window dummy) is associated with the way consumer goods have been presented. It shows distinct affinities to communicative constellations of the world of products and consumerism. This field combines different areas of cultural knowledge and tradition. Mannequins in films draw on older discourses and motifs, e.g. the »living dolls« of the Enlightenment and Romanticism. They are also informed by models of dreamresearch and psychoanalysis, by death symbols, and by aesthetic discourses about human nature which have been especially prominent in surrealist works of art.