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SUMMARY:Cutting\, Gluing and Playing House:  The Fun of Making Dolls’ Ho
 uses of One’s Own - Dr Nancy Wei-Ning Chen\, University College London
DTSTART:20150507T160000Z
DTEND:20150507T173000Z
UID:TALK59007@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lucian Stephenson
DESCRIPTION:When girls today enjoy playing The SIMs\, a computer game that
  brings a dolls’ house to life in virtual reality\, what was it like whe
 n their great great grandmammas would rather make their own dolls’ house
 s—with paper and glue—and furnish their dolls’ houses with odds and 
 ends easily found at home? This paper discusses the trend of ‘how to’ 
 articles popular in children’s magazines in the late nineteenth century\
 , together with other advice manuals and paper dolls’ house books for yo
 ung readers\, to examine how making toys of one’s own was used as an eff
 ective method to teach the child reader good morals and values such as tid
 iness\, thrift and altruism. All these virtues that the Victorians highlig
 hted were demonstrated in the genre that encouraged young readers to be cr
 eative and imaginative as they carefully followed the instructions step by
  step to carry out their own dolls’ house projects. \n\n \n*Nancy Wei-Ni
 ng Chen* recently completed her PhD in English at University College Londo
 n. Her thesis\, _‘To the Dolls’ House: Children’s Reading and Playin
 g in Victorian and Edwardian England’_ examines representations of dolls
 ’ houses and dolls’ house play in English children’s literature in t
 he long nineteenth century and the relevance of dolls’ house play to the
  everyday life of upper-and middle-class children. Her other research inte
 rests include studies of home and domestic culture\, nineteenth-century ch
 ildren’s magazines\, book history and commodification of children’s li
 terature. She volunteers at the V&A Museum of Childhood where she help cat
 alogue dolls’ house items among all sorts of toys held in the Learning D
 epartment. \n
LOCATION:Homerton College\, Hills Road\, Cambridge\, CB2 8PH\, MAB\, Room 
 104
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