Tikrit University

The Relationship Between Title and Content in Children's Stories (Jigergoşekan Magazine as a Model)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Abstract
The title is the key to the text, as it defines the meaning of the text's content and its components in revealing meaning, in a way that clarifies the purpose of the story through its title. Therefore, careful attention must be paid when choosing a title according to the general content and idea of the story, because the relationship between the title and the story is a reflective and indicative relationship. Thus, most research in analyzing story texts begins with the title, then moves to the content, and then returns to the title again. This is done with the aim of linking the title to the content of the story text, because the title has special importance for the reader, as it either attracts the reader to the text's content or makes them turn away from it, since it is the first thing that catches the reader's eye. Furthermore, the title represents those signs, desires, and aspects that the writer uses to express their idea, which has made the title valued as an effective term in story text. In this research, we have addressed this relationship from both theoretical and practical perspectives, with our aim being to identify the fundamental point of this mutual influence between them. The research problem is manifested in the fact that if there is no relationship between the title and content—that is, the signifier and the signified—it leads to decreased reader engagement with the work and raises questions and criticism among researchers and critics. Subsequently, we attempted to examine (7) issues of children's story publications in Jigergoşekan magazine as a sample, where the results showed that these stories possess complete titles.

Keywords

Crossmark

Volume 10, Issue 1, Part 1
Winter 2026
Pages 97-124

  • Receive Date 06 November 2025
  • Accept Date 01 December 2025
  • Publish Date 01 March 2026