Examining the elements of paratext and its function in the Islamic magazine "Al-Hosseini al-Saghir"

In the creation of a work, in addition to the text, factors such as the title, introduction, cover design, editorial, interruption of the work, etc. are involved, which are called paratext. Paratext has various functions such as completing, decorating and introducing the main text. Paratext has a stronger role in children's literature than in adult literature; Because in order to better understand the text, the child needs a stimulus outside the text that provides the necessary space to understand the text and provides a suitable interpretation of the text for him. "Al-Hosseini Al-Saghir" children's magazine is one of the most up-to-date Islamic children's magazines, which has been welcomed by a large number of Arab children with its diversity in form and content, and has been published since 2009. In this research, an attempt is made to examine the most important paratextual elements of the 2020 issues of this monthly based on the descriptive-analytical method and analyze the functions of each of them. The results show that the title "Al-Hosseini al-Saghir" is related to the ideology and attitude of the editors of the magazine on the one hand and to the child and his surrounding environment on the other hand. The two layers of the language system and the image system are placed in a frame called the cover design and the editorial as a threshold to enter the main text of the magazine. The sum of the meanings of the two mentioned systems helps to understand the image and receive the content of the magazine.