Children's Literature Studies
Year:2013 | Volume:4 | Issue:1 (7)|Papers Count:7

Gender is one of the most important parts of human identity that is formed in human beings by the process of socialization، especially in childhood. This process is realized in some ways including reading fiction books so children are exposed to this process from very early in life. This process and the mechanisms of its formation and development are investigated in this article in the story of Name-haee be Aqa-Ghoole (Letters to Mister Giant) written by Mohammad-Reza Yusofi، based on the symbolic interactionism، a relevant sociological theory. Findings show that the story is full of gender bias many of which are commonly discriminatory in the social real world out of the story.

Many educational researchers believe that the intellectual، cultural، national and religious foundations of any generation are established during childhood and adolescence. The educational system of each country has an important role in forming and shaping these foundations; writing proper textbooks is one the most important tools in establishing these foundations. There are about 45 poems or prose poems from various ancient and contemporary poets on various topics presented in the Farsi books for the guidance schools. The number of these poems has increased from 9 in the first grade book to 19 in the third grade book. Due to the importance of teaching subjects such as national and religious identity in this educational period، such issues have been of concern to the textbook authors. Based on this study، the number of religious poems is much more than the patriotic ones، while it is necessary for both to be equally proportioned as they are the main items for creating the identity. In this study، the poems are studied from the prospective of the religious and patriotic themes and elements، and their frequency of occurrence.

Stories are an important part of the cultural heritage of any nation. Contrary to modern scientific notion of the story as being non-scientific، it was considered as one of the most essential human concept in ancient times. It seems that ancient human’s mental thoughts، whether unconscious or conscious، were affected by stories. Stories are usually stored more in the unconscious but also in the conscious of a child and help alleviate many pains and sufferings; with the help of story a child can prevail over hopelessness resulting from narcissism، sibling competitions and oedipal complexes. One of the most important goals of a story is to prepare the child to understand sexual matters gradually. A story can provide suitable awareness in a child into the world of sexual matters through metaphors that are most effective in the child’s growth. In this essay a popular story in Lak dialect is analyzed based on the psychology of Jung. In this essay it has shown how concepts like Anima and Animus have been present in our ancestors’ minds.

Mahdi Azar Yazdi (1300-1388) is a famous writer in the field of children`s literature. He is one of the early writers for children so his poetry is analyzed to evaluate his use of language. In writing his poetry he has focused on education and didactic topics presenting his ideas in a simple language. In his Hasht Behesht (Eight Heavens) which consists of eight poems، one is faced with a simple language with no literary complexities. However، he uses some words and expressions which might be difficult for a child to understand. Azar Yazdi's use of idioms and vernacular language has made him popular amongst his readers، both young and old، though this poems lack both an energetic rhythm and a variety of literary elements. Azar Yazdi does not use a complex figurative language; instead his main focus has been more on instruction and less on the beauty and the artful use of language.

The main goal of this research was a comparison between Iranian folktales، Iranian picture-story books and English picture-story books based on philosophical thinking components. The stories in this study consist of 10 Iranian folktales، 10 Iranian picture-story books and 10 English picture-story books that were picked by chance and using the method of deductive content analysis were investigated according to the Philip Cam’s philosophical thinking components. The findings showed that، there is no remarkable difference between Iranian picture-story books and Iranian folktales، but there are some variations between Iranian and English stories. Iranian picture-story books and Iranian folktales contain more philosophical thinking components than English stories; therefore the former stories are richer in content than the latter ones. Also، the component of exploring skills is more in Iranian stories than English stories.

Ahmad Akbarpour (1970) is an Iranian writer of children’s and young adults’ fiction who has been highly influential in the domain of Iranian modern children’s literature due to his postmodern narrative style. He has published many novels in which there always exists an interesting relationship between the writer and the characters. The issues of power and empowerment play a very important role in everyday life. The adults are likely to impose their dominancy over the children using all their power either by punishment or other familiar ways. The writers of children's literature-mostly being adults themselves-include these issues in their works. However، there are some writers who sometimes try to break the hierarchical power relationship between adults and children in order to empower the children. In this paper، the researchers have used Elisheva Sadan's theory of empowerment mentioned in her، Empowerment and Community Planning: Theory and Practice (2004)، and have applied this theory to Akbarpour’s three works: I Am Not Dad’s Servant (Man Nokar-e Baba Nistam)، Ghoul and the Bicycle (Ghul va Docharkhe) and The Southern Dreams (Royahaye Jonubi). Finally، the paper introduces some empowering tactics that Akbarpour has employed.

Characterization and personification are two important components in the fictional works for children and young adults and due to their prime importance، writers pay much attention to the selection and performance of fictional characters of their works. They are also of great importance in the adaptation of ancient literary texts so that the characters are the means of expressing the writers’ thoughts and messages. The characters of adapted works of Molavi best represent this subject. In this paper different types of characters in 35 adapted works of Masnavi for children and young adults، namely the self-willed aunt، the secret of the talking bird، are introduced and categorized. The most important characteristics of these works are presented and it is argued how the writers have made changes in characterization. The works are selected from among 128 adaptations due to several reasons; the first one is that these works are often single- narrative works; collections of stories were not considered because of their length. This research is dedicated just to the investigation of recreated and rewritten adaptation works. The aim of studying characters in the adaptation works of Masnavi is that all types of characters can be clarified and categorized and also their symbolic aspects discussed.