Children's Literature Studies
Year:2014 | Volume:4 | Issue:2 (8)|Papers Count:7

In recent times, cultural practices have led children's literature into the domain of classical literature. Shahnameh as the most widely used classical masterpiece of Persian language has been introduced to Iranian children's literature. This paper discusses different adaptations of this classical epic for children and adolescents. This research shows that there are many varied and different types; however, the vast majority of adaptations are rewritings of the text. Reproductions, abridgment, revision and selective writing of the text of Shahnameh are not that frequent in comparison to other types. It is argued that adaption from verse to prose is the best and the easiest to do.

This article first presents a brief review of the history, meaning, and function of literary theory, and then proceeds to elaborate on the charming and slippery stance of children’s literature theory and criticism. The impact of “reading other ways” on the philosophical self-deconstruction of theory constructors’ practices is also dealt with. To illustrate the application of theory in practice, i.e., to reach a critical reading based on Roderick McGillis’ eclectic approach that encompasses best methodologies, the story of “The Sun in the Sky and the Sun in my Stomach” written by Morteza Khosronejad which deals with understanding the essential concepts of decentration and time is initially inspected from a mythological/archetypal perspective with a focus on the concepts of relativity and decent ration. Taking intertexuality theory into account, the researcher attempts to explore this philosophical-literary story from other angles to reveal the reason and the way it appeals to the reader’s interest. The outcome is reaching a spectrum of diverse meanings accomplished by analyzing the text through perspectives of different theories.

Songs, rhythmic and poetic texts which are commonly used by the children living in Khorasan province along with those songs and poems recited to them by their parents (in the realm of oral literature--folklore), require a thorough and scientific classification. The present study has undertaken to offer such a classification based on the application of each text type. These texts are classified into two groups: oral poetic texts without any games. This group consists of poetic texts that adults read for children and poetics texts read by children themselves. The second group are oral poetic texts used in children’s games which consist of: 1) poetic texts used for selecting teammates; 2) poetic texts used in games; 3) poetic texts about the games. The classification methodology used in this study can be adopted as a model for classifying other aspects of the children’s oral literature.

This article seeks to compare and analyze si murgh (30 birds) and Simurgh (phoenix), heroes of Attar Matiq al-Tayr’s allegorical stories, with Alice Through the Looking Glass in order to give a new reading of Simurgh and si murgh in Matiq al-Tayr. Despite differences in the details of the story, they are based on the same principles. There are similar motifs like mirror and dreams in these two stories which in Matiq al-Tayr lead to understanding and intuition of Attar of a reality beyond time and place experienced by the mystic. Thus it seems that each of the thirty birds of Matiq al-Tayr can be considered as living in the parallel world of a dream just as Kaku refers to Alice Through the Looking Glass in order to define parallel worlds in physics.

Computer games have an important role in children’s and teenagers’ leisure time all over the world. Since producers and directors of such games are mostly American and European, these games contain ethical and cultural values most of which are not compatible with ours. Thus producing computer games based on our culture and values for our young population is an undeniable necessity. A large part of Iranian literature including epic, didactic, mystical and folkloric texts have a remarkable potential to be used in films, theatre, animation and computer games. Thus Iranian youth will become familiar with their rich heritage of classical masterpieces and folklore. This paper discusses computer games and their importance, advantages and disadvantages, and introduces one interesting sample of a game, Qahraman e Qatel, (The Killer Hero). This game is based on an Iranian folk tale; its narrative technique, characterization, setting, sound effects, various actions, fantastic scenery, weapons, dialogues, suspense and episodic scenes show how effectively such classical stories can be turned into computer games.

The purpose of the present research is to identify and analyze reading vocabulary of primary school children in Iran based on a corpus of story books published during 1380-81, as well as the comparison of this vocabulary with students’ written vocabulary. The research is of exploratory nature and the scale used is nominal. The statistical population consists of story books considered suitable by the Children’s Book Council for age groups a, b, and a and b. The research was conducted using Delphi software, and designed in accordance with research questions and specifications. 162650 language forms were collected of which 1702 words were introduced as basic reading vocabulary. Research findings indicate that the compatibility between reading and writing vocabulary in sub-groups of simple verb, natural elements, body and color has been “much”; in sub-groups of scientific, religious, sport, cities, and idiomatic words as well as infinitives has been “very little”; and in other sub-groups has been “little”. Results also indicated that in general the compatibility of reading and writing vocabulary for these age groups has been “little”.

Children's tales are generally simple and understandable in form and narrative but rich and full of emotional-cognitive aspects and interpretive potential in the deep-structure. Though, such stories communicate easily (through form, narrative and language) with the reader, they contain a widespread network of concepts, models and cognitive schemas hidden within their complex structure. The indirect language of tales addresses the unconscious of children and prepares them to deal with the real and possible worlds by identifying and changing the negative cognitive or maladaptive schemas in order to replace them with positive and therapeutic ones. Effects of stories on children's growth are highly complex due to the use of metaphors, schemas and preparation of growth processes. Storytelling indirectly makes children aware of obstacles and contradictions as well as their own talents and capabilities thus making them able to think and search. Schema is of high importance in interdisciplinary studies and cognitive sciences. Schemas are a type of organized experience and classified knowledge that create our cognitive framework as a set of thoughts, imaginations, feelings and values. Schema therapy believes that negative thoughts and behavior patterns are associated with adverse childhood experiences. If these patterns, maladaptive schemas, are not well understood confronting them is useless. In this paper some famous children's tales are analyzed based on schema theory and two basic solutions, changing negative and maladaptive schemas, and positive and therapist interpretations, are discussed.