The aim of the book is to fill the significant research gap concerning the evolution of the repertoire of Greek shadow theatre during the interwar period of the 20th century. During this time, there was an explosion of new performances, pushing an oral art form to the boundaries between tradition and innovation.
An overall investigation is attempted into the typical plot models of traditional works of Greek shadow theatre, drawing tools from the methodological approach of the science of oral literature. Despite the emphasis on the codes of oral creation, the study does not overlook the deviations introduced to traditional creation models by the necessity of improvisation, the form of dramatized primary material, the scholarly claims of some educated Karagiozis performers, and their creative artistic enthusiasm.
To complete the research, hundreds of texts and recordings of Karagiozis works were studied, thousands of performances were archived in electronic databases, and a large volume of bibliography was collected. Nevertheless, the guide for the interwar performances is the repertoire of Karagiozis performers in the city of Patras, based on the found records in the newspapers of that city.
