Field, Hannah (2012) A story, exemplified in a series of figures: paper doll versus moral tale in the nineteenth century. Girlhood Studies, 5 (1). pp. 37-56. ISSN 1938-8322

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Abstract

Early in the nineteenth century the London publishers and printsellers, S.and J. Fuller, packaged paper dolls and storybooks together in their empleof Fancy paper doll books. Tis article examines the tension between thenarratives of these works—typically moral tales for children in which a loveof clothing is punished—and the accompanying paper dolls, which celebratecostume and dressing up. Te textual morals against love of clothing aregendered in problematic ways, with female characters mortified for this flaw more readily than male characters. However, the variety of potential reading experiences offered by the form of the paper doll book, in which picture and word are separate, is viewed as a challenge to the gendered moral content of the stories. Ultimately this article argues that the form of the paper doll book sheds new light on D. F. McKenzie’s (1986) ideas about how readers makemeaning from texts.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of English > English
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NC Drawing. Design. Illustration > NC1280 Printed ephemera. Imagerie populaire P Language and Literature > PR English literature > PR4000 19th century, 1770/1800-1890/1900 P Language and Literature > PZ Childrens literature
Related URLs:	Publisher
Depositing User:	Hannah Field
Date Deposited:	14 Sep 2015 14:33
Last Modified:	03 Jul 2019 02:06
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/56748

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