Publication details
The Importance of Identification with Fictional Characters
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | The International Journal of Adult, Community and Professional Learning |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Pedagogy and education |
| Keywords | Experiential Learning; Identification; Fictional Character |
| Description | The article arises from case study experiences being made with the Czech and Slovak audience of TV series Sex and the City. This media product can be considered a striking example of spontaneous social and emotional learning right in the front of a TV screen. The following study sets itself the task to find out how much depends the experiential and socio-emotional learning on the identification with fictional character. Viewers of popular TV series get experiences with various topics through various fictional characters’ stories. We found out that this form of experiential learning comes from a viewer-fictional character identification process which is itself a part of a broader process of (self)reflection. A deep comparison of a fictional character and its situation with oneself is a crucial part of social and emotional learning. Through the characters we identify with, we can usually get into new situations as well as to those, which we already experienced before with an additional potential to learn. Although educational environments arising from fictional characters-ourselves discoveries may sometimes seem a bit chaotic, this process remains an irreplaceable and elementary form of lifelong learning. |