Children's books of Saudi Arabia: Literary and cultural analysis

Abstract

After studying hundreds of Saudi children's books, I decided to keep eighty of them to represent my selection. My main focus in this study is the literary and cultural characteristics of Saudi children's books. Thus, this study is based on two questions: What are the literary characteristics of Saudi children's books? and What are the cultural characteristics of Saudi children's books? I used the content analysis approach to answer both questions. Content analysis means the use of a theory or theme to analyze a text or a series of texts. The theory or theme is used as an analytical device, the main focus being analysis of the text rather than development of theory. In order to answer the question about the literary characteristics of Saudi children's books, I studied the seven most common literary elements found in textbooks of children's literature. A literary analysis chart was developed representing character, plot, setting, theme, point of view, style and tone. After analyzing the selected books literarily, I found that only a small number of the selected books use techniques of the literary elements to attract the readers. The majority of the books represent the false nature of flat characters and are written to instruct and educate children rather than entertain them. Illustrations do not add much to the written text in the majority of books; thus the majority of the books are illustrated books rather than picturebooks. A cultural analysis chart was developed from the readings and the interviews about Saudi culture. Three major categories represent the Saudi culture for this study: religion, family and childhood. After doing the cultural analysis for the selected books I found that there are many misrepresentations of the Saudi culture in most of the books indicating a lack of careful study of the culture. There is a separation between religious and nonreligious books, women have traditional roles in most of the books, and children are portrayed as either ideal or stupid in the majority of the books. Moreover, the landscape and/or the clothes of characters in most of the books are misrepresented.