Source URL:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100204/385/ten-children-s-computer-games-comics-nov.html

Children's computer games, comics, novels 'worthy of academic study'


London, Feb 04 (ANI): A new Cambridge University institute will soon give
children's computer games, comics and novels as much significance as "texts
worthy of serious academic attention."

Professor Maria Nikolajeva, who is set to be the first director of the
Cambridge / Homerton Research and Training Centre for Children's Literature,
dedicated to studying children's media, insists that video games like 'The
Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince' help children make moral choices.

"It's easy to say that these things are just kids' fashions or that they're
trash, but I don't believe that's good enough," the Telegraph quoted
Nikolajeva as saying.

She added: "If what we regard as trash is popular with young people, we need
to know why.Even if you are looking at an ABC book, the choice of 'A for
apple and 'C for car' rather than 'cart' tells us something about the
culture. There are lots of embedded, implicit messages."

Nikolajeva further argued that at a hidden level books about growing up are
also about making children realize they will one day die.

She said Peter Pan was about a child denying death because he refuses to
grow up.

She concluded: "All children's books bring the idea of your own mortality. I
think it's inherent.

"There might be writers who are more conscious [of such embedded ideas] than
others, who never give it a thought, but I think it's such a profound part
of children's literature, that it's present verywhere." (ANI)
ANI


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