Deconstructing Dolls

In recent decades, emerging scholarship in the field of girlhood studies has led to a particular interest in dolls as sources of documentary evidence. Deconstructing Dolls pushes the boundaries of doll studies by expanding the definition of dolls, ages of doll players, sites of play, research methods, and application of theory. By utilizing a variety of new approaches, this collected volume seeks to understand the historical and contemporary significance of dolls and girlhood play, particularly as they relate to social meanings in the lives of girls and young women across race, age, time, and culture.

List of illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Interrogating the Meanings of Dolls: New Directions in Doll Studies
Miriam Forman-Brunell

Chapter 1. Dolling Up History: Fictions of Jewish American Girlhood
Lisa Marcus

Chapter 2. “A Story, Exemplified in a Series of Figures”: Paper Doll versus Moral Tale in the Nineteenth Century
Hannah Field

Chapter 3. From American Girls into American Women: A Discussion of American Girl Doll Nostalgia
Molly Brookfield

Chapter 4. Barbie versus Modulor: Ideal Bodies, Buildings, and Typical Users
Frederika Eilers

Chapter 5. Handmade Identities: Girls, Dolls and DIY
April Renée Mandrona

Chapter 6. An Afternoon of Productive Play with Problematic Dolls: The Importance of Foregrounding Children’s Voices in Research
Rebecca C. Hains

Chapter 7. Some Assembly Required: Black Barbie and the Fabrication of Nicki Minaj
Jennifer Dawn Whitney

Chapter 8. Black Girls and Dolls Navigating Race, Class, and Gender in Toronto
Janet Rosemarie Seow