The Concept of Violence in terms of 100 Basic Works that are Recommended to be Read in Secondary Schools

Abstract

Article History: Received 10.05.2014 Received in revised form 14.05.2014 Accepted 25.05.2014 Available online 02.12.2014 Children’s literature is a whole of written and oral works that enrich children’s emotional and mental world in their life process beginning before school and continuing until their adolescence with linguistic and visual transmitters holding an artistic concern. The books are the main tools of children’s literature. Children’s books should not only be in coherence with language and style; at the same time it should be able to contribute to children’s mental and imaginary world with their subjects, heroes, implicit and indirect messages. In this study, the elements of violence in twenty books (decided by random sampling) of 100 Basic Works prepared by the Ministry of Education for Primary and Secondary Schools have been examined. In the analysis of these works, documental analysis among qualitative analysis methods has been used. “Sentence” is accepted as the starting point of the analysis of works in terms of violence. Each work has been analyzed on the basis of sentences and the sentences containing violence have been classified quantitatively. To analyze the outcome of the obtained data, Content Analysis Method has been used. At the end of the study, it is indicated that many works including child heroes such as “The Prince and The Beggar, A FifteenYear-old Captain, The Treasure Island, The Kidnapped Child” frequently refer to “violence”. Children books should be evaluated from the view of messages of it, characteristics of heroes, usage and aim of violence. © 2014 IOJES. All rights reserved