Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics articles from January 1 2007

Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics archives from January 1 2007

The Little Prince and the Air Force Pilot.(Poem)
January 1, 2007... The Little Prince and the Air Force Pilot "You should have seen the imploded children you have killed in your last air raid," said the little prince to the air force pilot he had chanced on planet F52. "I did not...

Childhood: creativity and representation.
January 1, 2007... Writing for children, or about children, is deceptively easy. Children remain an enigma represented by adults. They are not in a position to offer an alternative view of themselves. However, they can turn away from a book or an activity to show...

Seeing children: a photographer's view from the Arab world.(Essay)
January 1, 2007... In this testimonial essay, the author introduces some of the children he has encountered while covering events in the Arab World for over twenty-seven years. It is a personal account with illustrations from Palestine, Algeria, Iraq, and Egypt....

"The Simple little picture book": private theater to postmodern experience.
January 1, 2007... A picture book is a text, illustrations, total design; an item of manufacture and a commercial product; a social, cultural, historical document; and, foremost, an experience for a child.... On its own terms the possibilities are endless. ...

"Faint and imperfect stamps": the problem with adaptations of Shakespeare for children.
January 1, 2007... Despite the numerous reasons against adapting Shakespeare's works for young children--including the difficult language and mature subject matter of the plays--many authors have done so over the past two hundred years. Why is this? How do...

History's child: Virginia Woolf, heritage, and historical consciousness.
January 1, 2007... I felt as a gipsy or a child feels who stands at the flap of the tent and sees the circus going on inside. Virginia Woolf, "A Sketch of the Past" 152-53 Orphans is what I say we are--we Georgians--but I must stop. Virginia Woolf,...

Wonders of Childhood: on the Margins of Formation *.(Excerpt)
January 1, 2007... Muhammad 'Afifi Matar (Translated and Introduced by Ferial J. Ghazoul) This translation renders into English the first twelve sections of the renowned Egyptian poet Muhammad 'Afifi Matar's memoir--written in the late 1990s--revolving...

Vital attitude of the poet: interview with Naomi Shihab Nye.(Interview)
January 1, 2007... This interview with poet Naomi Shihab Nye explores how her poems are informed by an inquisitive, child-like spirit and an ever-watchful eye of a mother. Such 'vital attitude' uniquely enables her to write poetry for all ages. It has also...

Are children morally inferior to adults?
January 1, 2007... This article suggests that while developmental theorists are in disagreement over many particulars about child development, one area of agreement is the moral inferiority of children. It examines the theories of Freud (psychoanalysis), Kohlberg...

Maturing into childhood: an interpretive framework of a modern cosmogony and poetics.(Critical essay)
January 1, 2007... But how can I form the conception of the sizelessness of Matter? --Plotinus My ideal goal is to "mature" into childhood. That would be genuine maturity. --Bruno Schulz This article proposes a strategy for reading Bruno...

"The Child is Father of the Man": The Rainbow of My Painting.(Essay)
January 1, 2007... In this testimonial essay, the author recounts how, encouraged by his parents to paint, he discovered his love of painting early in life. This later led him to abandon a banking career and dedicate himself entirely to art. He explains how...

Razing Child Soldiers.
January 1, 2007... This article traces the usages of the term 'the child' as a legal concept set in dialectical relationships on three levels of narrative. First, the emergence of the child in international law is described and read critically as a progress...

Beautiful resistance: theater of the children of the Refugee Camp.(Abstracts of Articles)(Al-Rowwad Center)
January 1, 2007... In this testimonial essay, the author presents his experience in founding the Al-Rowwad Center in Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, as well as its aim of providing Palestinian children with a safe space and the opportunity for self-expression. The...

Intertextuality in children's literature: Elmessiri and Al-Sharuni as examples.(Abstracts of Articles)(Abdel Wahab Elmessiri and Ya'qub Al-Sharuni)
January 1, 2007... This article is based on the idea that intertextuality is, by definition, a feature of literature itself. It suggests that analyzing texts addressed to children presupposes that such an addressee imposes a number of restrictions on the author,...

Puppet theater: between child and critic.(Abstracts of Articles)
January 1, 2007... This essay examines the child/adult audience's reception of the art of puppetry. It focuses on this art's oscillation between two levels of vision. First, child-like vision allows the audience to identify, and interact with, the character the...

The treatment of children's literature in selected musical works.(Abstracts of Articles)
January 1, 2007... This essay presents the transposition of important literary works for children by some Egyptian composers. The works explored in the essay include: the children's musicals The Good and The Bad and Al-Layla Al-Kabira, and the symphonic suite...

Each time I step into the river, I find it--and myself--changed: a testimony on childhood and writing for children.(Abstracts of Articles)
January 1, 2007... In this testimony, the poet expounds his belief that writing for children is a safe bet on the human future which aims at achieving positive human values. He enumerates the various stages his writing has undergone, since the mid 1960s to the...

The development of the concept of heroism in Egyptian children's literature.(Abstracts of Articles)
January 1, 2007... This article provides an overview of the concept of heroism and its basic characteristics in Egyptian children's literature. It attempts to depict the development of the image of the hero and its various typologies, in accordance with the...

The childhood of visual memory (Interview).(Abstracts of Articles)
January 1, 2007... In this interview with the renowned Egyptian caricaturist, designer, and book-maker, the artist presents his perspective on his work in general, and insights into children's books--their designs and illustrations--in particular. Recalling his...

Scientific Pedagogy as applied to child education.(Abstracts of Articles)
January 1, 2007... (Translated and Introduced by Amanie Fawzi Habashi) This is a translation of chapters five and six of Maria Montessori's Il metodo della pedagogia scientifica applicato all'educazione infantile nelle case dei bambini (The Montessori...

Muhammad 'Afifi Matar's agenda in his writings for children.(Abstracts of Articles)
January 1, 2007... This article deals with Muhammad 'Afifi Matar's children's stories, tracing the roots of their conception and the ideas behind their themes. It analyzes a number of representative tales that outline Matar's ideas on education, including man as...

The Arab child between East and West: a reading of Al Shamshun, 'Alam Simsim, and Bakkar.(Abstracts of Articles)
January 1, 2007... This article explores the continued Western influence upon Arabic children's literature, addressed to different age groups, and the various forms of such an influence, as well as ways of subverting it. The article offers a reading of three...