Biografia rzeczy jako metoda badań nad zabawką dziecięcą
Biography of Things as a Method of Research on Children’s Toys

Summary/Abstract: The article attempts to use the biography of things in order to carry out research on children’s toy. The aim of the text is to show the possibility of using certain elements of the biography of things in historical and pedagogical research on a child’s toy. This issue is important because it makes it possible to look at a toy from a different perspective – as a thing (material object), which, until now, in the research has served as a text that has been analyzed in accordance with the assumptions of constructivism. The main purpose of this approach was the reconstruction of children’s toys and plays in various historical periods. Using the method of the biography of things in the research shall make it possible to present the linear life sequence of a toy - from its inception, through being in the child’s hand, the time of hibernation, until time when the toy returns to life. The text shows an example of the life of the Szrajerka doll in the so-called long period of duration. The author presents the way of producing the object, its purpose, market (the first life of the toy), time of hibernation and the second life of Szrajerka as a museum exhibit, a part of a private collection, or a toy in the hands of a child. The latter option restores the basic function of the doll – a ludic function.

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