Kurmaca Karakterlerle Özdeşim: Çocuk Okurlar Üzerine Bir Araştırma
Identification with Fictional Characters: A Study on Child Readers

Summary/Abstract: Fictional children's books with literary features allow child readers to identify with the narrative elements they contain, thus facilitating a personal connection to the text by providing children with an effective and intense literary experience. Although identification with fictional characters is often expressed in literature, research on how identification occurs is limited. In order to fill this gap, the main problem of the study was determined to access how child readers identify with fictional characters with reference to reader response theory. The study group of the research, which was structured with a case study, which is a qualitative research design, consisted of sixteen sixth grade middle school students. The data were collected using the interview method and subjected to content analysis. Readers responded to literature similarly to their responses to events, people, and environments in their real lives. During reading, readers' autobiographical memories were activated and emerged as an important element in determining their reactions to narrative elements. Plot emerged as the most important narrative element in creating identification. The identification between the characters around the protagonists and the people in their own environment strengthened their identification with the main character.

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