Children's Literature Studies
Year:2012 | Volume:3 | Issue:1 (5)|Papers Count:7

Pre-school children are different from others in understanding time concept as children up to the age of 6 do not understand different aspects of time such as estimation of duration, finding the difference between present and past and anachrony. The study of time shows that “anachrony” and “deceleration” are not properly understood by these children so we must to use them carefully in pre-school children’s narrative. On the other hand, chronological order, isochrony and acceleration are suitable for pre-school children and we can use them. Narrative time analysis in 6 poetry books of Naser Keshavarz (for pre-school children) proved that scenic presentation and dialogue have the most usage among different types of time presentation in children’s narrative.

In this paper different aspects of narrativity are analyzed in a new story by Ahmad Akbarpour entitled “Se Sut-e Jadui” (Three Magical Whistles), using Maria Nikolajeva’s theory of narrative. In 2003 Nikolajeva presented some views about narratology in children’s literature showing preference for this theory as an independent approach. In this theory her focus is on narrative and its elements like characterization, point of view and temporality which organize narrative structure of children’s stories. The findings of this paper show that Akbarpour has added to the attractiveness of his story by using new techniques which Nikolajeva has pointed out such as open plot and description of scenes and details. Although Akbarpour has tried to create a different story, he has not been completely successful because the monotonous tone of characters and prevalence of narrator decrease the power of his story and do not allow positive features to be revealed.

The story of cat and mouse and their confrontation is a common theme in Persian literature. This story has always been popular among children and it is one of the important texts of Iranian traditional schools. Such stories have been widely reflected in Persian literature and short stories in verse and prose have been written based on this confrontation. In addition, some long stories have been written imitating Mouse and Cat by Ubayd Zakani. There are fifteen adaptations of Mouse and Cat of Zakani; Mouse and Cat of Sheikh Bahai is the most famous one.

First person narrator is homodiegetic (one of the story’s characters). This narrator is the protagonist or a witness and its voice is the main voice in the narrative. In first person narratives, the main focalizer is the narrator, too. A study of first person narratives in pre-school children’s narrative poems proves the potentials of this narrative type; the use of first person narrative in pre-school children poems multiplies their educational effects. Choosing this kind of narrative has to be done carefully due to the nuances of voice and focalization. An analysis of two collections of Naser Keshavaz and Mostafa Rahmandoost shows the high frequency of this usage.

Fantasy is one of the most important and useful literary genres for children and young adults. It is a genre that permits the writer to create an imaginative mysterious, scary, and magical atmosphere. Thus the reader not only enjoys the text but also reaches a new definition for existence. Ahmad Reza Ahmadi, an Iranian writer of fiction for children and young adults, has published a variety of works of fantasy; in 1384 his book entitled, I Have Words that Only You kids Believe appeared causing quite a stir. He has also published White Pigeon beside the Mirror in 1389. In these books he uses features such as deconstruction, defamiliarization, relativism, linguistic games and virtual realities which also appear in his modern poems. In this paper Ahmad Reza Ahmadi’s poems for children and his modern mainstream poems are compared and common features are discussed.

Two hundred and ninety one stories from the database of Iranian Book Home were selected and evaluated in order to analyze published religious stories for children and young adults over the period of 2001-2006 with regard to the quality of content, construction, language, illustration and physical shape. Findings show that there are 3 basic issues with regard to the content quality such as lack of references, direct advice, and prejudice about discussed subject. Some basic identified issues on the part of the content consist of sending messages explicitly with direct conclusions and advice at the end, non-creative presentation and exaggerated description of religious personalities. Regarding construction and writing style, there were difficult and ambiguous terms not explained in the footnote, lack of a fluent language, low quality of illustrations and lack of creativity. Physical appearances of books were acceptable.

Traces of research about children’s literature can be found in various disciplines. Obviously, regarding the subject and research questions, each study employs a different approach and method. In the current study in order to illustrate an overall picture of research on children’s literature, 164 dissertations and theses were identified and their abstracts were evaluated. Among 164 identified items, 40 adopted qualitative approaches, 48 used quantitative approaches, 12 employed mixed methods and 51 used library and documentary methods. Moreover, 13 dissertations were developed based on translation, bibliography and rewriting of some old texts. Until now, most of the dissertations on children’s literature have been conducted in the library and information studies departments. In contrast, some disciplines including Persian literature and Education paid less attention to this area. While these fields mainly have various subfields, nevertheless, the number of dissertations in this area has been increasing and in the last decade it has reached its climax of 72 dissertations. Seven categories were identified in this content analysis; among them survey and criticism of children’s literary works (such as poems, fictions, etc.) are the most popular topics in children’s literature research. This result also showed a link between research methods and popular research topics in this area. Finally, it can be concluded that more than being a new and particular research method, this area needs thoroughness in the application of existing methods, as the topics in these studies are immensely diverse with various aspects and each of them requires a specific method to address the issues.