بچوں کے انگریزی ادب میں اسلامی تہذیب و ثقافت کی ترویج: منتخب کہانی نگار خواتین کی کاوشوں کا جائزہ

Promulgation of Islamic Culture and Civilization through Children’s Literature in English: An Overview of Contributions by Selected Women Writers

Abstract

Children’s literature has always been created and published due to its importance to the aesthetical, cultural, and educational needs of young brains. It is purposefully written not only for pleasure and fun but also to teach fundamental socio-cultural values and develop early academic concepts. A voluminous juvenile literature has been produced in the English language for more than a century. However, it was dominated by British-American culture in its context, structure, vocabulary, presentation and even illustration. On the other hand, the growing number of immigrants and children who read English stories worldwide, either for learning or fun, felt it hard to relate themselves to the cultural settings of these stories. Eventually, this need drove giant publishers like Oxford, Cambridge, Macmillan, Scholastic Inc., and others to incorporate diversity and multi-ethnicity in their publications, rather than to make them Euro-American-centric. In general, Muslims—being a significant community in English speaking world—have been striving to maintain their religious identity, while attempting to assimilate into the majority culture.  In addition to their various endeavours, from the dawn of the twenty-first century a significant number of women have started writing various fictional, non-fictional, illustrated, and non-illustrated books for children of different ages. In this context, this study provides an overview of women’s contributions to the promulgation of Islamic culture and civilization, using the children’s literature in the English language as their tool.