EPOP - Popular Roots of European Culture Through Film, Comics and Serialized Literature

Funded in the frame of the EU Culture Programme 2007-2013. Co-organizers: Dipartimento di Musica e Spettacolo, Università di Bologna; Faculté de Lettres, Université de Limoges; Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres, Université Catholique de Louvain; Pallas, Universiteit Leiden; Assessorato alla cultura della Provincia di Pescara. The EPOP project deals with an object that has received a growing attention in the last few decades, both inside and outside academic studies: the fictional texts (both written and visual) serially produced by European culture industries between mid-XIXth century and early XXth century. The project aims to contribute to the rediscovery and diffusion of an important heritage for the definition of European cultural identity, through international research and the organization of events in the involved countries. Considering that media culture is often analyzed only with reference to American productions, the identification and appraisal of a specifically European tradition in this field can help promote the acknowledgment of a common cultural heritage among EU citizens. Film and comics communicate through the universal language of images: when they become interlaced, they often produce texts in which the audiences can recognize instinctively their cultural tradition, rediscovering and renewing the myths and the narrative memory of the popular literature that preceded them. The ability of connecting tradition and modernity has allowed these languages to accept innovation without losing contact with the past, creating a new image of popular culture for European audiences. Cinema, comic books and serial literature represent a cultural meeting point for European citizens: thanks to the richness of this heritage, the project aims to produce research, innovative teaching tools, and public events, involving at the same time the academic world and high school teachers and students, tracing lines of continuity between different disciplines and cultural fields, promoting the study and the knowledge of both the topoi of European collective memory and the authors and artists who contributed to shape the shared languages of media culture throughout the Continent. Though the transnational dimension of this phenomenon has been widely acknowledged, communication among cultural institutions variously concerned with research in this domain still remains flawed. EPOP aims to surpass the cultural and linguistic boundaries that have prevented until now a true appraisal of such continental dimension by establishing a transnational network of researchers and institutions working to promote a better knowledge of this particular cultural heritage among EU citizens. Seven countries are involved in the project. The cooperation among a wide range of cultural institutions in different countries aims to produce a connection of research, didactics and popularization activities. Several actions have been planned: Creation of a database of archival materials; Publication of a collection of essays (in English and French); Education/Information seminars addressed to students and teachers; Publication of a multilingual CD-Rom (in English, French and Italian) with teaching resources aimed to introduce the younger generation to the history of European popular culture; An exhibition of archival materials; Production of a newsletter whose function will be to circulate information on research and events concerning the history of European popular culture. The networking activity will continue throughout the whole duration of the project and constitutes in fact one of its main objectives. These are the tools through which EPOP is hoping to contribute to the promotion of a better awareness of the history of European popular culture and the necessity of its preservation.