Article
Affaf Tobbala The Cinderella of
Arab Children's Literature
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Toson, Ahmad. "Affaf Tobbala: The Cinderella of Arab Children's Literature," Middle East on Line, 13/1/2015.
Below is a link to the original Arabic article:
The
Egyptian writer represents the Arab children's book in the new
millennium ; and is a model for a new generation that does not abide by
rigid established age group divisions.
At
the age of sixty five in a life full of love, adventure and hard work,
she decided to start weaving her stories, and to dust all what's around
her, awaiting her own fairy godmother to come and turn around both her
life and Arab children's literature.
Arab
children's literature, which was first founded on grandmothers'
stories, saw its biggest leap at the hands of Kamel Al-Kilani, who is
considered by many, deservedly, the pioneer with the many writings,
translations and adaptations he made from the Arab (cultural) heritage,
with which he enriched the Arab library. Despite the important
beginnings at the hands of Refaa Al-Tahtawi and his translation of
Children's Stories and the Little Poucet, and of Mohamad Othman Galal in
Open Eyes on Proverbs and Sermons and his writings published in Rawdat
Al-Madares (Engl. The Schools Garden), and the writing of Ali Fikri in
Musamarat Al-Banat (Engl. Girl's Chats) and the writing of Ahmad Shawqi
and Mohamad Al-Harawi and others, Al-Kilani is considered by critics as
the founder of Arab children's literature, as he dedicated all his
attention to writing for children since he wrote his first story for
children Sinbad the Sailor in 1927 and until he died in October 9,
1959.
In
the second half of the twentieth century Arab children's literature was
tied closely to the names of the two great pioneers Abdel-Tawwab
Youssef and Yacoub Al-Sharuni, who enriched, and continue to enrich, the
Arab Children's Library with their large number of writings and the
total dedication to children. This dedication to write for children
only, for more that half a century, contributed to making their names
synonymous to Egyptian and Arab children's literature. No ungrateful man
can deny, and no researcher can overlook the technical qualitative and
quantitative leap forward both writers contributed to the Arab library.
They liberated Arab children's literature both from the rigidity of
(traditional) form and from falling captive to western writings directed
to children in the second half of the twentieth century.
Also
we cannot ignore the Arab and Egyptian names that appeared beside the
two great writers and that played a big role in developing Arab writing
for children, such as Sulyiman Al-Eissa, Zakaria Tamer, Shafik Mahdi,
Ahmad
Naguib,
Mahmud Qasem, Fatma Al-Maadul, Al-Mesiri, and Shawqi Hijab and many
others, whose writings emerged as attractive examples and phenomena in
the journey of writing to children. However, (with those writers), we
will always focus on the name of the writer more than the title he
produced due to the huge quantity of works produced by those writers and
from others in the same era.
And
so Arab children's literature continued to alternate between being a
pedagogic means that allows children to find answers to their questions,
and a means that helps them emancipate themselves from traditional ways
of thinking and stimulate their imagination and innovativeness.
With
the advent of the new millennium, Arab interest in writing for children
increased. New big awards were dedicated to writing for children. Most
important among them is the Sheikh Zayed Award in the category of
children's literature. The award is to be thanked for putting the
Cinderella of writing for Arab children: Dr. Affaf Tobbala, in the
limelight after her novel The House and the Palm Tree received that
award in its fifth session.
The
House and the Palm Tree was not the writer's first work. It was
preceded by other outstanding works that made the writer collect a
number of important awards, including that of the Bologna International
Book Fair for children for her first book The Silver Fish, and the prize
of the Ana Lindh Foundation for her book The Eye. However, The House
and the Palm Tree, was like the wand that carried Cinderella from the
shadow to fame. And set the readers and all concerned on a journey to
excavate and search for that fairy godmother that brought them from no
where one of the most beautiful Arab novels for children and young
adults.
Most
young adult novels tended either to focus on pedagogic aspects, such as
the writings of the great pioneering pedagogue Ali Maher Eid, or to
depend on adventures or detective stories to achieve the thriller
effect. Affaf Tobbala's bet was on art. She created for her hereon,
Bahana, her own mythology as she went on a journey to educate her grand
son. She used exuberant and smooth language that she counted on for its
inspirational significance and superior techniques, removing from it all
excesses or unnecessary digressions. She showed keenness on displaying
methodical and rational thinking in the way she built the structure of
her novel and the way she conveyed its main idea to her readers.
Affaf
Tobbala represents the Arab children's book of the new millennium; she
is a model for a new generation that does not abide by rigid established
age group divisions. It looks at children's literature mainly as Art,
without disregard to the pedagogical and behavioral aspects related to
the different age groups that are addressed by a work.
The
work of Tobbala, who started writing for children at the age of 65
after retiring as an executive director of the Nile drama television
channel, cannot be compared quantitatively with what many other
presented to children's literature. However, what distinguishes her
writing is her seriousness and keenness to present high and
distinguished quality, that becomes engraved in the imagination of her
readership, whether children or adults, and her wagering first and
foremost on art; her solidification of reason, methodical thinking and
human values. This applies to her distinguished works,
including Old Papers, Hola..Tata..Hola, Sika and Mokka, Ud El-Sanabel, Homecoming Hymn and others.
If
women are the first founder of the art of writing for children through
pram hymns and grandmother stories, there comes a woman, in the third
phase of the development of that form, that recaptures the leadership of
a form of literature that women established. Such leadership takes
place at the hands of a generation that perceives writing for children
in a distinctive manner and seeks to catch up with the developments that
the different literary and art forms went through; after shedding rigid
straightjackets and pedagogical and educational restrictions. Affaf
Tobbala and her writings are the best representative of this new writing
for children.
Affaf
Tobbala is the beautiful Cinderella of children's literature, who
provokes the imagination of our children with her magical pen and who
mixes imagination and reality to hover with our children in a world of
beautiful and distinctive innovation.
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