The journey of the writer Dr. Haitham Al-Khawaja with children's literature in a symposium hosted by Homs book

Homs-Sana

(My Journey with Children’s Literature) The title of the symposium held by the branch of the Arab Writers Union in Homs, which dealt with the experience of the playwright and critic Dr. Haitham Yahya Al-Khawaja in the literature of writing for children.

During the symposium, Al-Khawaja talked about his theatrical upbringing since childhood, where he participated in a school show that won an award thanks to it with the late artist Khaled Al-Rashed to grow his love for theater in the advanced stages of his high school years, then university and beyond.

Through this experience, Al-Khawaja concluded that children’s literature in Syria is developed, and that Homs has a group of distinguished writers, and that attention to this literature is very necessary in this stage in which our country is experiencing, because we need to advance the child with his awareness, culture and thought, and to develop his personality and support him to be the future custody that we are waiting for.

Al-Khawaja considered that the advancement of children's literature requires the support of the children's writer and the development of strategies for the development of this literature and the tightening of control over the books issued within this specialization, and such control should be concerned with the idea and artistic maturity together.

Regarding the characteristics of a well-versed writer of children’s literature, Al-Khawaja stressed the need for the writer to possess intellectual and literary faculties based on mastery of writing tools, and to know the psychology of the child, and that his verbal lexicon is distinguished by novelty and innovation, expressing his regret that the children’s literature book relies on a writing formula that was used in the past, which is a big mistake because the child Today, he has changed and become more familiar with techniques, scientific innovations and social networking tools.

Al-Khawaja expressed his hope that publishing houses, book fairs, media of all kinds, audio-visual, workshops and cultural seminars will contribute to shedding light on children's literature and supporting promising young talents.

For his part, the critic and academic researcher Dr. Ratib Sukkar presented in the symposium an explanation of Al-Khawaja’s experience in developing children’s literature, which is one of the various avant-garde experiences that mixed in his plays the arts of story, singing and theater, which gave them a beauty that mimics the beauty of ancient Greek plays, describing this as an authentic theatrical construction and reviewing a number of his plays Which qualifies him to have a serious experience in literary art worthy of study and research.

Sukkar pointed to the lack of master's and doctoral dissertations concerned with criticizing children's literature like other human literature, calling on the faculties of education and literature in universities to pay attention to this literature technically and fundamentally, which establishes a generation armed with aesthetic and artistic values.

The seminar was presented by the writer Omaima Ibrahim, head of the Writers Union branch in Homs, and a group of intellectuals and academics from Al-Baath University.

Hanan Sweid