Editorial

List of contents Welcome to the EPOP (Popular Roots of European

Culture Through Film, Comics and Serialized Literature) Project
1. PROJECT NEWS Newsletter. In this number you will find a report of the
p. 2 EPOP Conference, held in Bologna on December 9, 2009,
and some news on research projects and recent publications
2. RESEARCH NEWS on the history of European popular culture.
p. 3 We remind you that we are collecting presentations
from any research group, institution, association, journal,
3. RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON
website, collector or independent scholar working in our
EUROPEAN POPULAR CULTURE
p. 4 research field and interested in presenting its activities in
this newsletter.
If you have any suggestions regarding the newsletter
or anything else relating to the EPOP project, please contact
federico.pagello@unibo.it.

With best wishes,

EPOP Project Publication Committee

1
1) Project News: The EPOP Conference
On December 9, 2009, a study day and public
presentation of the activities of the EPOP
network was organised in Bologna at the
Department of Music, Film and Performing
Arts.
The project’s goals and outputs were
announced to a public composed of students,
scholars and the general public. From the
project conception to its potential future
developments, the EPOP teams discussed
their work from a theoretical, methodological
and technical point of view. In the first
session of the morning, after a general
presentation of the project and the
institutions involved, Farid Boumediène and
Loïc Artiage (University of Limoges)
explained in detail the guidelines used by the
EPOP network in the creation of the
database and the virtual museum.
After the coffee-break, three
presentations dealing with case studies taken
from some of the virtual museum’s “rooms”
were given by Matthieu Letour neux
(University Paris X), Olivier Odaert and Jean-
Louis Tilleuil (University of Louvain-la-
neuve), and Federico Pagello (University of
Bologna). Letourneux showed how the
literary genre of the “mysteries of cities” can
be read not only as a metaphor of modernity
itself but also as the first transnational
(European) genre born along with modern
cultural industries. It was first created in
France but immediately imitated in all parts of
Europe as well as overseas. Odaert and
Tilleuil explored the beginnings of European
comics, outlining their uneven development
in different countries and the necessity to
address this topic from the point of view of
cultural history. They claimed that only an
European history of popular culture can help
us to study the evolution of this mode of
expression in our continent. Pagello reminded
the audience that, thanks to Nick Carter by
Victorin Jasset (1908), the first serial film was
European, and that European serial cinema
was a great international success until the end
of the silent period – a success which it could
not reclaim after the Second World War.
After the lunch break, Natacha Levet
(University of Limoges), Felice Pozzo (Italian
independent scholar) and Irène Langlet
(University of Limoges) presented other case-
studies they worked on for the realisation of
the virtual museum. Levet discussed Sherlock
Holmes’ transmedial and transnational career.
From German dime-novels to Danish serial
films, from French literary pastiches to
American reprises, Holmes is probably one of
the most paradigmatic characters in this
respect. Pozzo talked about the large
international success obtained by Emilio
Salgari during his life and long after. Finally,
Irène Langlet analysed the difficulties she
encountered in editing the “room” on the
fantastique because of theoretical and linguistic
problems connected with the polysemy of
this term in the critical lexicon but also with
the different linguistic contexts involved in
the EPOP project.
As a conclusion of the conference, a
round table dedicated to the conservation and
valorisation of European popular culture
took place with the contribution of external
guests such as Prof. Paola Pallottino (Museum
of Illustration, Ferrara, and University of
Macerata), Prof. Claudio Gallo (Public Library
of Verona, University of Verona) and Luigi
Virgolin (Film Library Bologna). The
impossibility to maintain an institution only
devoted to the preservation of materials such
as drawing and illustrations (Pallottino), the
experience of Verona public library in the
creation and valorisation of a collection of
popular literature and comics (Gallo) and the
history of the Bologna film library (Virgolin)
offered the chance to address larger issues.
The possibilities of the Internet and
transnational projects were then discussed in
an attempt to establish which initiatives the
EPOP network could support to promote
further development of this promising field
of research.
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2) Research News
The (Re)birth of the Author:
The Construction and
Circulation of Authorship in
English Culture
European Society for the Study of English
(ESSE)
10th Biennial Conference.
Turin (Italy), 24-28 August 2010
Convenor: Prof. Francesca Saggini Boyle
(University of Tuscia / University of
Glasgow) E-mail: fsaggini@unitus.it
Co-convenor: Dr. Anna Enrichetta Soccio
(University of Chieti) E-mail:
esoccio@unich.it
The seminar will explore and theorise in
diachronic and cross-disciplinary fashion
(literature/culture/language) the flourishing
of texts, myths, fictions and afterlives
revolving around the cult and culture of the
Author.
Proposals are sought in the following
areas of investigation: portraits, photographs,
and other forms of the visual
commodification of Authorship (including
paratextual materials); biopics, documentaries,
and factional biographies; exhibitions,
museums, literary societies, fandom, and
websites; heritage sites, monuments, and
literary tourism; celebrative artefacts,
merchandise, toys, and collectible items;
public and private events and their
remediation (including weddings, funerals,
f a m i l y f e a t u r e s, a n d g o s s i p n e w s ) .
Contributions in the fields of the sociology of
reading, cultural migrations, and the new area
of celebrity culture studies are particularly
welcome. Those wishing to participate in the
Conference are invited to submit 200-word
abstracts of their proposed papers before 31
January 2010. The convenors will inform the
proponents whether their proposals have
been accepted no later than 28 February
2010.
Prof. Francesca Saggini Boyle (University of
Tuscia / University of Glasgow) E-mail:
fsaggini@unitus.it
Phone (+39) 0761 357613
Fax: (+39) 0761 357601
Email: fsaggini@nitus.it
Circulations, transfer ts et
adaptations dans la bande
dessinée
Université Versailles Saint-Quentin, mardi 18
mai 2010
Appel à contribution
Date limite de réception des propositions : 30
janvier 2010
Le groupe de travail «  pour une histoire
culturelle de la bande dessinée souhaite offrir
un lieu de discussion et d’échange à tous les
chercheurs intéressés par l’histoire culturelle
de la bande dessinée. Celle-ci, comme l’ont
déjà souligné Jean-Paul Gabilliet et Thierry
Crépin, est encore largement à construire. Si
sociologues, littéraires et sémiologues se sont
appropriés le champ, les historiens sont
encore relativement rares ; surtout, ils sont
isolés, et cette initiative cherche donc à faire
se rencontrer ces différents chercheurs,
confirmés et débutants, pour que soient
dégagés axes de recherches et perspectives
communes.
Un premier atelier de travail sera
organisé le mardi 18 mai 2010 à l’Université
Versailles Saint-Quentin.
L’angle choisi pour cette première
rencontre sera la question des « Circulations,
transferts et adaptations dans la bande
dessinée ». Dès l’“invention” de la bande
dessinée par le Suisse Rodolphe Töpffer, et
3

jusqu’à aujourd’hui, ces phénomènes de
circulations et d’adaptations sont incessants et
influent fortement sur la bande dessinée, de
sa production à sa réception en passant par sa
réalisation. Ils sont cependant encore mal
connus, malgré notamment les travaux
pionniers portant sur l’américanisation de la
bande dessinée française. Lors de cet atelier,
ces phénomènes pourront être appréhendés à
différentes échelles :
* d’un pays à l’autre
* d’un format à l’autre
* d’un média à l’autre...
Il s’agira de présenter des études portant sur
des corpus clairement définis, à partir
d’archives, et s’interrogeant sur les points
suivants :
* les acteurs et médiateurs au sein de ces
processus de circulations et d’adaptations
* les multiples formes de ces circulations et
adaptations, selon les échelles étudiées
* leurs évolutions dans le temps.
Conformément aux orientations du Centre
d’histoire culturelle des sociétés
contemporaines, cet atelier est ouvert à une
approche interdisciplinaire de la bande
dessinée, même si l’accent sera mis sur une
perspective diachronique. Enfin, au cours de
cet atelier de travail seront recensées les
recherches en cours et les initiatives
prioritaires à mener pour approfondir et
valoriser l’histoire de la bande dessinée.
Propositions:
Les propositions de communication, d’une
pag e environ, indiquant le titre, la
problématique, le corpus et la méthodologie,
sont à envoyer  accompagnées d'un court CV
avant le 30 janvier 2010.
Organisateurs :
Sylvain Lesage lesage.sylvain@gmail.com,
Caroline Moine.
Births of the Comic Strip
Autrique House, Brussels, 28 October 2009–
25 April 2010
The exhibition “Births of the Comic Strip”
offers a new look at the origins of the comic
strip. Originating at the end of the eighteenth
century (with Hogarth and Rowlandson) to
come to an end with the masterly work of
Winsor McCay. In the meantime, the visitor
will discover numerous documents on
Rodolphe Töpffer, Wilhelm Busch, Nadar,
Frost, Christophe, Outcault, Dirks and many
others, but also many draughtsmen unfairly
forgotten to this day. There will be original
boards, very rare editions, short films, etc.
Autrique House
Chaussée de Haecht, 266
1030 Brussels
www.autrique.be
“Popularization and Media
Strategies” Project
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific
Research (NWO) has awarded Jeroen Salman
(Utrecht University) and Louis Grijp (Utrecht
University/ Meertens Institute Amsterdam) a
grant (€ 450,000) for their research project
‘Popularization and Media Strategies
(1700-1900)’.
This five-year project is part of the
multidisciplinar y research programme
‘Cultural Dynamics’.
The Popularization and Media Strategies
(1700-1900) project analyses the process of
selection and adaptation in Dutch popular
4
 literature during the eighteenth and
nineteenth century. Research for this project
is centred on songs and catchpenny prints,
which can be considered as the main mass
media of the past. These genres incorporate
three important components of popular
culture: music, images and text. They also
have strong affiliations to contemporary
forms of popular culture, such as comic strips
and popular music. Furthermore, these genres
ensured that a large potential of stories,
images, songs and melodies were being passed
down from one generation to the next. This
project wants to answer the question of how
the process of selection and adaptation in
songs and catchpenny prints interacted with
the motives and strategies of producers,
distributors and consumers. The hypothesis
driving this exploration is that the Dutch
3) Recent Publications
Il corsaro nero, no. 10,
October 2009
The last number of this review devoted to
Emilio Salgari and popular literature was
published in October 2009 and features a
special dossier in memory of Prof. Sergio
Sarti and articles by Luciano Tamburini,
Alessandro Ferrais, Stefano Vicentini, Alberto
Leoncini, Fabrizio Foni, Darwin Pastorin,
Felice Pozzo, and a few texts by Emilio
Salgari.
To order the journal, please write to:
ilcorsaronero@emailclick.com
popularisation process in this period, contrary
to common notions, led to cultural
convergence instead of cultural divergence.
This convergence manifested itself, just as it
does in our modern media society, on the
levels of production and distribution,
intermediality, reception, and appropriation.
The central question is addressed in two
related subprojects. The first subproject
(PhD) studies the motives and strategies of
the producers and distributors of songs and
catchpenny prints. Inter mediality is
approached here as a production strategy. The
second subproject (Postdoc) focuses on the
selection, adaptation, and intertextuality of
the literary content of songs and catchpenny
prints. Here intermediality is studied on the
level of shared text, images, and music.
André Rauch, L'amour à la
lumière du crime : 1936-2007,
Paris, Hachette, 2009
“Au tribunal d’assises, les avocats doivent
convaincre un jury. Celui-ci représente le sens
commun d’une société à une époque donnée.
Le crime passionnel, si tant est qu’il existe,
devient un argument pour plaider les
circonstances atténuantes. Ce livre réunit les
arguments, à charge ou à décharge, pour
décrire la passion, ici la passion amoureuse. Il
montre sa violence lorsqu’elle naît, situe la
place de la sexualité dans le sentiment, montre
les différences ou les inégalités entre hommes
et femmes, met en évidence le rôle de
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 l’intimité dans le public et le privé, il court de
l’émotion initiale jusque dans le désamour ou
la déliaison. Mais, entre 1936 aux Assises de
Riom et 2007 à Colmar, les plaidoiries ont
évolué, leurs thèmes ont aussi changé. Car il y
a une histoire de la passion amoureuse, c'est
cette évolution qui est décrite et analysée dans
ce livre”. – André Rauch
Amanda J. Field, England's
Secret Weapon : The wartime
films of Sherlock Holmes,
Middlesex University Press,
2009
Film historian Amanda Field specialises in the
classic ‘studio era’ of Hollywood. Her latest
book is England’s Secret Weapon: The Wartime
Films of Sherlock Holmes, published on June 30,
2009 by Middlesex University Press. It
examines the way Hollywood used Sherlock
Holmes in a series of fourteen films that
spanned the years of the Second World War
in Europe, from The Hound of the Baskervilles
in 1939 to Dressed to Kill in 1946. Basil
Rathbone’s portrayal of Holmes has
influenced every actor who has subsequently
played this popular character on film, TV,
stage and radio, yet the film series has, until
now, been neglected in terms of detailed
critical analysis. England’s Secret Weapon
looks at the films themselves in combination
with their historical context.
More information can be found on
http://www.thefilmhistorian.com/index.html.

About the Project:

The EPOP Project (Popular Roots of European Culture Through Film, Comics and Serialized Literature) is a
research and popularization project funded by the European Commission’s Culture Programme 2007 and
is promoted by the Department of Music and Performing Arts of the University of Bologna, the Faculty
of Humanities of the University of Limoges, the Pallas Institute for Art Historical and Literature Studies
of the University of Leiden, the GRIT (Groupe des Recherche sur l’Image et le Texte) of the Catholic
University of Louvain-la-Neuve, and the Department for Culture of the Province of Pescara. The project
started on 24 November 2008 and will be completed on 24 May 2010.

About this Newsletter:

EPOP Project Newsletter provides news about the development of the project activities and circulates
information on research, initiatives and events concerning the history of European popular culture. The
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