Dissertation for Master's Degree (M.A)
French Language Translation Orientation
Introduction
"Draw me a beautiful picture". Which parent has not encouraged his child with this suggestion? Which school teacher has not offered such an activity to his students? Because we are fascinated or at least interested in children's drawings. We expect them, we hope for them, we request them and we encourage and accompany them. By commenting on the children's drawings and displaying them, we provide an excuse for the conditions of the conversation.
The child likes to draw and if the necessary conditions are available, he will draw a picture every day. Undoubtedly, he has been painting since the adults themselves discovered this way of expression. Among the paintings we have, we can mention engravings with a pen on the bark of a birch tree, which belong to a boy named Enfim[1] who lived in the Middle Ages[2]. Also, Louis XIII's childhood drawings [3], which were collected by the doctor or teacher of his household named Hérard [4], are now kept in the National Library of France. Also, European children's drawings that were collected from the 19th to the 20th century by people such as Ricci [6], Sully [7], Roma [8], Luke [9] and others. In addition, we have paintings that belong to children from distant lands and were collected by Piaget [10], as well as all the paintings today that are shown in classrooms, children's rooms and even on the virtual boards of the museum of children's works. ( www.lemuz.org )
A child who tries to draw a beautiful picture wants to make his parents happy and show them that he has grown up. But with this work, he responds to a cultural need, that is, he learns to speak, draw, then read, write and count, just as he learns to eat with a small spoon, and in this case, as well as a child, he achieves the general framework, rules, codes, standards and customs of his society. He steps into a world that is imposed on him and that world is our world. Barb Gal [11] proposed the phrase "how to look at a painting". The description of the works that he introduces shows well that looking beyond what we see requires the education of the type of look. This question is also raised for children's drawings.
So how should we look at children's drawings?
At first, we mention something important. For example, I taught for a long time the development of "child's drawing" and Locke [12] wrote a book called "child's drawing". But we use expressions such as "children's paintings" or "children's paintings" to emphasize the difference between small painters and the variety of paintings we examine. The vision we have towards it is complicated. In the beginning, it is only a feeling that we are touched and excited by the enthusiasm, simplicity, innocence and meaning that each painting gives us, whether it is good or funny. Sometimes it is very reasonable to ignore our initial feeling out of curiosity or concern to find out the child's personal balance. Of course, these two aspects of the view, i.e. the emotional view and the very logical view, not only do not contradict each other, but complement each other. Just as an art historian is delighted by the beauty of a work that he examines masterfully, we too, while looking at a child's painting carefully, are impressed by its simplicity.
Because, we believe that it is this look that gives meaning to the painting.
Just as we draw lines on the wall to indicate the physical growth and stature of a child, the progress in a child's painting reflects his mental development. forgive We know that a child's drawing is temporary. We feel that the painting is a proof of the humanity that is being formed and is considered a starting point for his future and progress.. One of the characteristics of a child is change, and the child's two-time drawing is a proof of this change. A positive evaluation of a child's drawing requires a perceptual framework that pays attention to mental development. The first lines that are three-dimensional and sometimes beyond that are among the changes that should be noticed. The dominant themes, the spatial relationships considered, the drawing language, the colors used and all the other characteristics of the painting evolve during the development process. how Is this evolution the same everywhere? Basically, our point of view refers to the concepts of psychology in the matter of progress.
We are the child who draws!
The view we have of a child's drawing is the view of an adult. It can be said that standing in front of a child's painting is like standing in front of a painting from the Middle Ages. Malraux[13] reminds us of this simple sentence: "For a person belonging to the 13th century, the Gothic style was modern and the Gothic world existed." The works that were inspired by Weiman's belief in Christianity were kept in churches. Today, in our current situation, we look at them with an educated and modern perspective. Of course, we are aware that they are not contemporary works, but it is very difficult and even impossible to look at them from the perspective of a medieval Christian. With the exception of a few experts, on the one hand, we do not know from what point of view these works were viewed when they were created, and on the other hand, even if we knew this, it would be very difficult and even impossible to ignore what we are today. What was the state of mind of a monk in the Middle Ages when he drew the Virgin Mary for a child? Although we have never been a Christian during the Middle Ages, and this time is a part of the completely unattainable past, we still remember that we were once children. We have not completely forgotten the language of childhood and this is part of our heritage. Our adult memory is full of signs and images from childhood. So we can put aside our mature view to examine the child's drawing considering his age. From the inside, we feel well what is the state of mind of a 5-year-old child when drawing a doll or a house? A child's drawing speaks of childhood and is a force that evokes our own childhood. It is a reflection of some paintings that are imprinted on our memory. Although the diversity of children's drawings sometimes amazes them because of their originality, they always tell us the vague ideas that we had in our childhood. It is very clear that it is easier to be in the place of a 5-year-old child than to be in the place of a medieval monk. We can move a little in time to have a logical approach available. But we still have to free ourselves from prejudices so that we can look at a child's drawing from a child's point of view.
Often, we are content to find things such as clumsiness, even though attractive, defects, forgetfulness, inconsistency, disproportion or weakness in children's drawings. Any painting that deviates from "good painting" (meaning the painting of an adult or even an expert painter), we identify it and interpret it negatively. Adults' painting is an abstract art that conforms to cultural norms. In general, these paintings emphasize the outline and the initial design, take into account the appearance, respect the proportions, remove everything that is not visible in terms of importance, and observe the perspective in the overall design. But the children's drawings are made up of simple geometric forms in which different features of the object are relied upon and views and appearance are not paid attention to, and they are often out of our conventional criteria for evaluation and praise. Of course, according to our esoteric definition of a "good painter", the child lacks sufficient skills and does not pay attention to everything. For a positive definition of his paintings, it should be considered that children draw as well as adults but in a different way. Our worldview, graphic language and perception of children's painting are not the same as adults. His paintings present creative graphic compositions whose language is different from the language of an adult. We should evaluate them positively for what they are.