“Fairy Tale Things: Studying Fairy Tales from a Material Culture Perspective.” In The Routledge Companion on Fairy-Tales Cultures and Media, edited by Pauline Greenhill, Jill Terry Rudy, Naomi Hamer, and Lauren Bosc (New York: Routledge, 2018), 328-336.

The realm of material culture represents a significant area in which the meanings and messages of fairy tales persist and vary across space and time. In ways distinct from oral tradition, the written word, visual iconography, or the moving image, material things structure and invite particular kinds of interactions from their users. This chapter considers several key issues and approaches to the study of fairy tales from a material culture perspective, drawing examples from toys, costume, licensed merchandise, and everyday objects. The chapter outlines some primary definitions of material culture, overviews core methodological approaches, and raises critical issues that surface in the intersection between fairy tales and material culture by highlighting several possible directions for future research.