Children’s poetry has not declined; today’s audience has changed.
The Children and Young Adults Service of Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) – Saye Barin: Children’s and young adult poetry has recently faced new questions regarding its position and influence among today’s generation. The spread of digital entertainment, changes in lifestyle, and the transformation of the cultural tastes of children and adolescents have presented serious challenges to poets in this field. However, many poets believe that children’s poetry has not only not lost its capacities but requires a fresh perspective, a more precise understanding of the audience, and an increase in the literary and general literacy of content producers. In this framework, the Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) has conducted an interview with Tayyebeh Shamani, a poet in this field, as part of a dossier examining the status of children’s and young adult poetry, which we will read together below:
Digital Entertainment Has Become a Rival to Books
Tayyebeh Shamani, in response to a question about the decline in the popularity of children’s poetry in recent years, said: “Whether children’s and young adult poetry has failed to maintain its past popularity really needs statistics to see if that’s truly the case.”
She added: “In the past, there were fewer entertainments; visual entertainment, virtual space, and computer games did not exist, and books were one of the few pastimes. Therefore, comparing today with yesterday is not simple.”
The poet emphasized that there has been no decline in content, saying: “We cannot say that we have suffered a decline in terms of content, because we have masters who were not present in the past and became our guiding lights. They took our hands and gave us guidelines on what the right path is and what the language of poetry should be.”
Shamani, referring to the role of children’s poetry masters, added: “We are luckier than our masters because we have them; like Mostafa Rahmandoust, Afsaneh Shabannejad, and Naser Keshavarz, who helped us every step of the way in writing. Good poetry always finds its way.”
Regarding the importance of literary literacy and understanding the world of the audience, she also said: “A few years ago, when I wanted to work more seriously, I studied psychology, because the worldview of today’s child is very different from the past. Today’s child is more literate, today’s teenager is completely familiar with world music, watches top films, goes to art exhibitions, and we must reach such a teenager. Our work is harder, and we must increase our knowledge.”
The poet continued: “We must be familiar with psychology, sociology, and the worldview of children and adolescents so that we can write good poetry for them and our poetry does not suffer a decline.”
She also described the role of serious criticism as very important and said: “Serious criticism and a good critic are very influential. The receptiveness of the poet and writer to criticism is also important. The more a work is hammered out, the more its flaws and shortcomings become apparent.”
Shamani concluded her remarks on the necessity of continually understanding children, adding: “I always try to be up-to-date and familiar with the worldview and concerns of children, because my concerns and worldview are different from theirs. That’s why I try to bridge these gaps so that my works are appealing to them.”
