Applied Principles of Criticism in Comparative Children's Literature

Understanding children, leads to achievement of children's literature, in the modern world. Consideration of the issues of children's participation and beliefs is important. An independent literature for them, has led to the emergence of new knowledge of the literature, research and scientific studies in this matter. Comparative literature for children and adolescents is one of the issues addressed in this area. Posing the "universal republic of childhood" in the late twentieth century and the rise of the comparative literature for children and adolescents have caused several categories to come into this field of study such as mediation studies, comparative study of genres and intertextuality. At first, in this paper,Wilkie's theory of intertextuality has been observed in the texts that are written in children's literature and then the relationship of this theory in children's comparative literaturehas been studies. The factors are classified based on the rise of intertextuality from the perspective of implementation in the field of child and adolescent.Next, according to the findings of the authors, elements of intertextuality and modification on the basis of comparative literature for children and adolescents, are shown in this paper. Intertextuality came into comparative literature, from the cultures of different ethnic groups. The author has explained the components introduced in comparative literature for children and adolescents with an aim to show the methodology of mixing it with intertextuality.
Appearance of intertextuality in the territory of children's and youth literature like its influence on adult literature is undeniable. Among literature which has been prepared for youth and children, there are written contents, illustrated ones and contents adapted from folklore in which the trace of the "old content" is so obvious on the "new content" that sometimes despite the author's effort in creating a new idea and bringing it into the new content, its old reference cannot be ignored.
Intertextuality in literary thinking has found an independent position so that one of the critics counted the text's authenticity and its staying on the first position as merely an "idea" (Barry, 2002:23). The subject of intertextuality in children's and youth literature as an inferred and conceivable subject is somehow simpler than theories defined regarding adult literature. In fact intertextuality in children's literature is only the existence of the "old content" in the "new content". Various subjects such as approaches to the theory of children's literature, content and transfer studies, comparative poetics, intertextuality studies, intermediality studies, image studies and comparative genres are cases that can be discussed in comparative children's literature.
The author intends to introduce the factors of appearance and applicable structures of intertextuality in the comparative children's literature. The present research methodology has been according to the theoretical principles and its data has been collected by library research. The basics of intertextuality in comparative children’s literature are not quite similar to the adult literature's but they are close.
Intertextualities in many of the children's literature cases at an international level appear with a frequency and in various forms. According to the observed works in children's literature which will be discussed later, there are documentations that connect the effect of the "old content" in the domain of children's literature and therefore the plan in the comparative literature to some factors. The following effective factors in the appearance of intertextuality in children's and adult's literature are similar in general, but quite different in details: Universal attention, cultural and social similarities, neighboring geographical borders, common language and translation.
Reviewing the intertextuality structures in comparative children's literature may reveal national and international relations. Intertextuality structures in comparative children's literature are two common elements for "text" and "reader" that occurred between "appearance" and "reappearance" depending on the historical, cultural and social structures. Understanding the development process of intertextuality depends on understanding its fundamental structures. The schema of this structure is as following: The author writes a text in a specific era with a specific culture and society, then the text is appeared with the same conditions; the audience reads it in a new era with a new culture and society; so the "new content" is reappeared based on the "old content" and the audience reads it and conceives the new concept of the work.
In the domain of comparative children's literature, intertextuality has been considered as an important subject. Universal attention to some of children's books, cultural and social similarities, neighboring geographical borders, language commonalities and translation are factors of appearance and influence of intertextuality in comparative children's literature in the world. In addition, the existing elements such as "second writer", "text" and "second reader" have an essential role in intertextuality progress and development among international societies. Analysis patterns in the comparative children's literature can be provided based on intertextuality's elements. Therefore, performance of second writers who consciously or unconsciously use the "old content" is important. Second writers sometimes insist on introducing the reference, and sometimes try to hide it. The other analysis pattern refers to the text. In comparative children's literature, the text provided in the "new content" is a presentation of cliché signs or literary, social and cultural hypograms. Recovering the existing textual relations between the "old content" and the "new content" may reveal the international or universal connections among children's books. On the other hand, it is necessary to consider the relation between the text and the second reader. The desired intertextualities in comparative children's literature will reach the pinnacle of success when they attract the second reader's attention. Fundamental question have been proposed regarding how to analyze these elements which answering them may indicate the functional review of intertextuality in comparative children's literature.