Resumen

RAFFAINI, Patricia Tavares. Are Girls Made of Rags and Boys of Lead? Material Culture and Literature. Secuencia [online]. 2018, n.spe, pp.177-187. ISSN 2395-8464.  https://doi.org/10.18234/secuencia.v0i0.1665.

This article seeks to reflect on how the intrinsic materiality of artifacts produced for children, especially toys, can be indicative of differences in gender and social identity. To this end, we will analyze certain toys produced during the 19th and 20th centuries, which circulated in both the European context and American countries, especially two categories: lead soldiers and rag dolls. We also attempt to analyze two narratives from children’s literature, from the same period, which based their stories on these cultural objects from childhood. We believe that this not only enables us to understand artifacts in a broader panorama of practices and representations, but also allows us to glimpse certain aspects of the Cultural History of Children.

Palabras llave : material culture; children and youth literature; cultural history of childhood; gender; toys.