Dolls Studies: The Many Meanings of Girls' Toys and Play New edition, 19

The 13 essays in this volume examine the meaning of dolls and girls' play practices and productions. The first section focuses on objects, narratives, and historical memory, discussing 19th-century children's literature manufactured with dolls and their stories about race; the Jewish American Girl doll, Rebecca Rubin, and Jewish American girlhood; and dolls as objects of memory and historical narrative in German girls' lives during the Third Reich and World War II. Subsequent sections address discourses, performances, and identities, including how the Riot Grrls of the 1990s altered the meanings of dolls, the appropriation of the barbie doll by Nicki Minaj, and how doll discourses shaped gender identities in Ireland during the 19th century; the context of play, namely cross-cultural play narratives of girls from Iranian immigrant families in Australia who play with Bratz dolls and how girls explore sexuality through YouTube videos posted on Barbie Sex Life; modernism and modernization, with discussion of the rise of the French luxury doll trade in mid-19th century Paris and the doll's role in technology; and multiculturalism, nationalism, and racism, including the role of doll play in the Japanese Doll Festival, marketing strategies used in selling Native American Barbie dolls, and the nationalistic significance of the Maplelea doll. Annotation ©2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)