A Study of the Overt, Covert and Null Themes in Iranian Children's Fiction

Children`s stories can include different or similar subjects; however, different themes give variety to fiction. Theme is the authors` interpretation and reproduction of the subject. The aim of the present study was elicitation of the existing, expected and null subjects of children's fictions published between 2001 and 2006, according to Khosronejad`s (2004) suggested model. The approach of this study was interpretative-descriptive; data collection method was documentary and data analysis method was deductive-inductive content analysis (Mayring, 2000). Results showed some null subjects in children`s stories such as fear, anger, single parents families, war, culture and social issues. The findings also showed that some existing subjects were more emphasized than others`, such as love, identity, self-discovery and self-knowledge while some subjects such as independence, creativity, responsibility, and individual differences were not that frequent.