Some Problems of Translating Children’s Fiction from English into Arabic: A Critical Perspective

Section: Research Paper
Published
Jun 24, 2025
Pages
59-94

Abstract

Childrens fiction is an attractive genre in literature which has drawn writers attention worldwide since the middle of the 18th century in the way of books for children, especially for didactic works of one sort and another like textbooks, books of etiquette and works of moral edification. For entertainment and diversion, they had Aesops fables, romances, travel books, chapbooks, broadside ballads (qq.v.) and any adult reading they could lay their hands on. Notable examples of this are Bunyans Pilgrims Progress (1678), Defoes Robinson Crusoe (1719). By the late eighteenth century, childrens fiction had grown into a fair-zise industry, with much emphasis on the inculcation of moral values to offset the supposed bad influences of the ROMANCE and the FAIRY TALES, also widely available (Frye et al., 1985: 100). Early in the 19th century, Charles and Mary Lamb wrote their famous Tales from Shakespeare. From this point, one can notice an ever-increasing number of publications for children in Europe, England and America (Cuddon, 1998: 114). In the twentieth century, writing for children had attracted scores of talented authors, as books for younger children had proven especially distinguished including Kenneth Grahames Wind in the Willows (1998); the adult Genres, especially in Popular Literature, had all been duplicated for children (Frye et al., 1985: 101). In the Arab world, the beginning of childrens fiction was in Egypt by Kamil Keylani; the first pioneer of Arab childrens fiction who wrote Al-Sendebad Al-Bahari (1927), side by side with Mohammed Al-Erian and Mohammed Al-Abrashi. In Iraq, the beginning of childrens fiction was in publishing the Iraqi pupil magazine (1992), and many other magazines that followed it, namely Majalaty and Al-Mezmar with the first publication nearly in 1970 (Ali, 2002: 6-10).

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How to Cite

Abdul Aziz, M., می, Huseen, saffa, & صفاء. (2025). Some Problems of Translating Children’s Fiction from English into Arabic: A Critical Perspective. Adab Al-Rafidayn, 47(71), 59–94. https://doi.org/10.33899/radab.1970.163418