مجله مطالعات ادبیات کودک
سال هشتم شماره 2 (پیاپی 16، پاییز و زمستان 1396)

Kalhor in Safarhay e Kargadan (Rhino's Journeys) describes a lonely character that goes on a mysterious internal quest. It can be said that what binds the six books of the collection is the effort made by different characters (Swan, Peri, Dragon Fly, and Gazelle) to relate to the rhino emotionally, while the rhino seldom comes out of his shell. The purpose of this research is to determine the status of this collection in the domain of picture-story books. The status of this collection is to be specified with regard to Khosronejad's theory of wholeness. In this research, different types of word and image interaction as counted by Nikolajeva and Scott are pointed out and the concept of wholeness is discussed in terms of the aforementioned interactions. In this research, with a descriptive-analytical method, first a thematic sketch of the verbal narrative will be drawn, and then the interaction of word and image will be explored to see to what extent pictures contribute to words. The enhancing and counterpointing interactions, commonly occurring in Safarhay e Kargadan (Rhino's Journeys), seem to help the collection approach wholeness.

Mahdi Rajabi is a relatively young author (born in 1980) who works in the field of children and adolescent literature. He has published 8 books, some of which have been critically acclaimed. One of these works is Canned Giant novel. The resemblance to the Blind Owl, one of the most distinguished contemporary tales in Iran and the world, is one of the features of this novel. In the first place, the reader of the novel notices the similarities between Canned Giant and the Blind Owl and as s/he keeps reading, s/he notices the influence of the Blind Owl. The following research studies the different aspects of such influence. Intertextuality and the views of its well-known theorists are applied to the work for analysis. The most obvious similarities between Rajabi's novel and the Blind Owl are the characters and how they are presented in the plot process. The narrative, motifs, and some descriptions also deepen the link between these works, a link that the Genette calls implicit intertextuality.

The main goal of this research was a comparison of written stories in Persian and translated stories based on problem solving stages and the characteristics of problem solvers. The stories in this study consist of 10 written story books in Persian and 10 translated story books published between 1380-1385 which were selected by Children's Book Council of Iran. These stories were analyzed using the method of deductive qualitative content analysis according to the Dewey's problem-solving stages and Griffin's characteristics of problem solvers. The findings showed that, in translated stories, the "data collection stage" and in written stories, "check solutions" had the highest frequency. And "problem definition", "formulation of the result" and "evaluation" in both groups of books were lower. Also, results showed that the "consequential thinking characteristic" in translated stories and "persistence characteristic" in written stories were observed to a greater extent, and "prior knowledge" and "considering the viewpoints" in both groups were lower. On the whole, translated story books included more problem-solving stages and the characteristics of problem solvers components than written stories. It may be said that the translated books were richer than written story books. Another result was that both groups of the discussed stories possess the majority of problem-solving stages and characteristics of problem solvers.

Children Literature, especially fiction, has moved away from its classical pre-determined forms and beliefs during the recent years; it has already changed and evolved the narrative aspect of these works. Meanwhile, the efforts of authors of children's fiction along with the structural-content evolutions in literature from one side, and social developments from the other side, as well as transformation of the passive child into an active reader, all have led to Post-modern stories. The story of Mr. Painter and the Naughty Cat written by Farhad Hassanzadeh has challenged the common beliefs about children’s stories; using Post-modernist narrative properties he has not only kept the context believable for the child addressees but also makes them the accepted realities about both stories and the world. Using the Post-modernism properties such as multi and non-singular narrator, metafiction, styles and genres assimilation, and multi-ending are some of the properties of the addressed work which are studied along with pictures in harmony with the text in the current research. Thus putting the child narrator’s voice against the omniscient adult narrator challenging the adult narrator’s authoritative narration. Furthermore, using techniques like quizzes and inviting the child to cooperate in the world of context yet emphasizing the fictional aspect of the book invites the reader to answer questions more creatively and actively.

The aim of this research is study the image of women in folk tales of Fras Province, Iran. Method of research is qualitative and the approach of data analysis is descriptive-analytic. Method of data gathering is archives and method of analysis is directed qualitative content analysis. Results showed that women's images and roles exist more than mens. Representations of young girl and middle-aged man are more than others groups. Women and men are represented with diverse descriptions and portray various characters. Paradigm of travel and narrations of quests in tales are not completely masculine.

A survey of studies about adaptation indicates that although researchers have concentrated on simple writing and applying elements of fiction in rewriting, yet adaptation of ancient texts for children has not developed much. Since such works lack element of pleasure in children's literature, they have not been popular. It seems what has yet been important is familiarizing children with ancient texts, not creating an appealing text for them. Nodelman has established a new approach for writers by investigating the properties that bring pleasure in children stories and attracting the readers toward the text. By enumerating pleasure indicators, Nodelman has concluded that if a children's literary text is without these indicators there would be no pleasure for the child addressee. Using Nodelman's approach this study analyzes five adaptations. It is argued how and with what techniques, adaptation can be placed into the child literary scope and make it pleasurable for its readers. The uncertainty resulting from duality of ancient text and new text and also the divided consciousness these texts give their readers are the most important reasons of pleasurablity of these texts indicated by techniques like antithesis, contrast, gap and allusion.

Fairy tales play an important role in the world of children’s literature. Not only are they amusing for children, and help nurture their imagination, but also they sink deep in their unconscious and alleviate or treat a lot of internal conflicts, oedipal complexes and sibling rivalries. The symbolism and allusions lying within these fairy tales have an evident role for children looking for answers of sexual nature. Furthermore, these childhood stories seem to offer them solutions when dealing with problems and challenges of the future. This study is a psychoanalytic approach to the Iranian fairy tale, the ‘Hooshroba Castle’ as introduced in Rumi’s Masnavi and re-written by Sobhi Mohtadi. The symbols of the fairy tale are discussed based on Bruno Bettelheim’s theories of child psychoanalysis as a very prominent child psychologist.

Samad Behrangi is one of the first Iranian authors who wrote stories for children and his The Little Black Fish is one of the great masterpieces of children and young adult literature. In this story the little fish is bored by both a barren life in a restricted area and narrow mindedness and vanity of its fellow creatures so it decides to go toward the unbounded environment and gain knowledge and new experiences. Therefore it ignores all the existing traditions and taboos and enters upon a risky road. Behrangi's The Little Black Fish and Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull have some similarities in content meaning and structure (layout point of view narratology and symbolism) In this study these two stories are comparatively discussed through a descriptive analysis and by finding the similar and different points of the mentioned stories aims to show the mental cultural and artistic common points of two authors from two different languages.