Editorial

List of contents Welcome to the EPOP Project Newsletter. In this

number you will find our call for a special issue of this
newsletter entirely dedicated to presentations of groups,
1. CALL FOR A SPECIAL ISSUE
institutions, associations, journals and websites working on
p. 2
the history of popular culture, a first introduction to the
2. PROJECT NEWS : WHAT’S A VIRTUAL forthcoming EPOP Virtual Museum, the presentation of
MUSEUM ? the Leeds Popular Cultures Research Network, and some
p. 2 news and call for papers on popular culture.
The EPOP Project (Popular Roots of European Culture
2. THE LEEDS POPULAR CULTURES Through Film, Comics and Serialized Literature) is a research and
RESEARCH NETWORK
p. 5
popularization project funded by the European
Commission’s Culture Programme 2007 and is promoted by
3. NEWS ON POPULAR CULTURE the Department of Music and Performing Arts of the
p. 6 University of Bologna, the Faculty of Humanities of the
University of Limoges, the Pallas Institute for Art Historical
4. CALL FOR PAPERS and Literature Studies of the University of Leiden, the
p. 10
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.
If you have any suggestions regarding the newsletter or
anything else relating to the project, please contact
federico.pagello@unibo.it.

With best wishes,

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1) Call for a special issue
We will be glad to dedicate a whole number of our newsletter (coming out during Fall 2009) to
a series of presentations of research groups, institutions, associations, academic or fan/
collector reviews or web-sites, etc. working on European popular culture, possibly
interested in joining the EPOP network. This newsletter, as well as the whole project, is firstly a
networking activity: our main goal is indeed to enlarge the number of subjects involved in our
network, in order to develop wider research projects on the history of European popular culture
after the end of the first phase of EPOP.
If you are interested in participating to this special issue please send us a short presentation,
including a description of your interests and activities, your contacts, and your ideas about a
European coordination of scholars, fans and collectors on the History of our popular culture.


2) What’s a virtual museum?

As announced in some of our recent EPOP newsletters, one of this project’s main
productions will be a “virtual museum”. This statement, in itself, raises the questions:
What is a virtual museum? How does it differ from a traditional museum? And, last but
not least, what will it look like?

The project
Obviously, a virtual museum is a place,
namely, a website where works of art can be
seen. When compared to a traditional
museum its flaw is self-evident: a virtual
museum can not provide “real” images only
virtual ones. However, in regards to popular
culture this is not a problem, for, as Walter
Benjamin acknowledged in his famous essay
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction, a work that is mass reproduced
has no “aura” whatsoever. (Well, modern day
collectors might have one or two things to say
about that…) Another advantage attributed to
the traditional museum resides in its promise
of new discoveries: a visitor may roam into
different rooms and discover pieces of art he
or she wasn’t expecting to see. This is why our
virtual museum will have a spatial structure.
The visitor will be able to wander from room
to room in response to his or her own
curiosity and select items according to his or
her interest. At the end of the day, a well
conceived web museum can provide the same

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services as a traditional one. Moreover, it may
be accessed from anywhere on the planet.
What is more, a virtual museum can offer a
visitor the free assistance of a highly qualified
guide. In our museum each item, or group of
items, will be presented alongside a short and
straightforward commentary. In these
commentaries hypertext links will connect
words and phrases to other sections of the
museum. This possibility will allow the visitor
to create his own path through the museum
reg ardless of its original str ucture.
Furthermore, the museum will be connected
to our database which means (despite the fact
that the latter won’t be directly available)
visitors will be able to observe, and read, the
development of our work as it evolves from
day to day.
Ultimately, a virtual museum, according to
EPOP, is a museum that freely offers
everything found in a traditional museum. It
can be accessed from anywhere and provides
a visitor with commentaries and constantly
evolving data. For these reasons, our museum
will aim to attract a wide range of people,
from scholars and fans to students looking for
information.

The adventurer room

The very first room that we have started to

work on is called “the adventurer”. One
reason we chose this category is because it has
been an adventure to assemble the contents
from four different countries, and even more
universities, into one room. Furthermore, just
as Fantômas, one of the most famous heroes
(or anti-heroes) of international popular
culture, was a perfect guinea pig for the
database tests, “the adventurer” is a common
character in popular culture; a character that
the whole EPOP team could begin working
on.
It is important to mention that though the
“adventurer” can not be considered a rational
or scientific classification of character, it is
extremely important to us that the entries
included in the museum (i.e. the “rooms”) be
this category is self-evident to much of the
meaningful for the public. This is a paradox
public, such as the students and the fans, to
of course because while it may be difficult for
which the project is aimed. Moreover, this
a scholar to precisely define “the adventurer”
classification does not mean that we should

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 not specify, within the museum, that such a
definition is merely a practical solution to the
broader and more complex problem of
typology. For this reason we have decided to
add the subtitle “exoticism and colonial
imagery” to the room as an indication of
other interpretations for the character of the
“adventurer”.
This first thematic entry will be introduced
with a short presentational text and a few
general images. In addition we have decided
to include other classifications of the
“adventurer”, namely, the pirate, the
swashbuckler, the reporter, the aviator and the
sportsman.

The virtual museum will offer hundreds of

images of books, illustrations, movies and
more. Many of these images are rare and
thus difficult to acquire. Each
representation will be accompanied by a
concise explanation and additional
references which will permit further
investigation and exploration.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, popular culture

delivered an incommensurable number of
productions of varying quality and success.
These productions have shaped our
imaginations, our ideologies and the arts. EPOP
aims to give the public access to this important
part of our identity and our past.
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3) The Leeds Popular Cultures
Research Network
The PCRN is an international gathering of
academic staff, postgraduates and cultural sur les Littératures Populaires et les Cultures
practitioners who have teaching, research and Médiatiques.
creative interests in popular culture in all its Some broad thematic threads which recur
aspects. It is hosted by the School of Modern under the umbrella of the network’s interests
Languages and Cultures at the University of are:
Leeds. A pluralistic approach is taken to the - the national and the transnational
term popular culture, so perhaps it might be
more accurate to speak of ‘popular cultures.’ - gender
The truly interdisciplinary nature of the - the global, local and glocal
network means that members have interests
- high, popular and mass.
in a variety of areas that go well beyond
modern languages, for example: English, - cybercultures, cyberspace and cyberlaw
Music, Communications Studies, Film and - identity, identities and ethnicities
Media Studies, Philosophy, Sociology,Design,
- place and space
to name but a few. Given this interdisciplinary
nature, the PCRN has close links with a - cultural policy and the creative industries
number of other, affiliated research centres at - architecture and the city
Leeds, including the Centre for World Cinemas,
The PCRN has grown rapidly, with over
the Cultural and Media Industries Research Centre
ninety members currently, and is truly
(CuMIRC), and the Centre for the Study of the
international in nature.
World‘s Popular Musics. Since 2002, the PCRN
has held a series of one-day conferences as
well as regular workshops at Leeds, the most The PCRN and French Studies
recent of these being the June 2009 series (1)
The French Department at Leeds groups a
Policy and the Popular, (2) Poor text / rich
significant part of its research within the
context? Approaches to popular film and
Centre for French and Francophone Cultural Studies,
television, and (3) New Wave, New Views:
of which one major strand is the study of
Re-visiting the post-punk moment. Recently,
popular culture. David Looseley (whose work
several events have been organised in
is on French popular music and cultural
collaboration with the major French Popular
policy), Diana Holmes (popular literature esp.
Cultures research group based at the
women’s writing/reading and cinema) and
University of Limoges, the Centre de Recherches
David Platten (popular literature esp. crime

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and cinema) are currently collaborating on a
book project:
Constructing the Popular in Contemporary French
Culture (Manchester University Press).
The are also engaged in collaborative research
projects on popular fiction with the Limoges-
based CRLPCM:
- the visit to Leeds in March 2009 by Jacques
Migozzi and Loïc Artiaga, to speak at and
participate in two seminar/workshops:
Stor ytelling: le prêt-à-penser et le plaisir
romanesque’(18.03.09) and Generic Pleasures: re-
thinking genre in popular fiction (20.03.09) –
these will now form the basis of Special
Issue of a scholarly journal
- the return visit of Holmes and Platten to
Limoges in early October 2009
- the joint hosting of an international
conference Finding the Plot- On the Importance of
3) News on popular culture
Imagery exhibition in Belgium
The Louvain-la-Neuve’s Museum, in
Belgium, is presenting, until September 26,
an exhibition of 19th century prints from
Lorraine (France). Best known as images
d’Epinal, these popular illustrations can be
seen as an early form of comic: they mix
text and image and were directed towards a
large audience. Professor Jean-Louis Tilleuil,
director of the GRIT, an EPOP research
group, has provided commentaries for this
exhibition. They have been published by the
museum and can be purchased on site. Les
images d’Épinal. Une savoureuse préhistoire
Storytelling in Popular Fictions at Leeds in April
2010.
Platten and Holmes have also re-submitted a
bid for a major AHRC Research Grant, for a
project on the popular fiction of 1950s and
60s France: Reading for Pleasure: Elite and
Popular Fiction in France 1950-74.
For further information see:
h t t p : / / w w w. l e e d s . a c . u k / s m l c /
Popularculturesresearchgroup.htm http://
w w w. l e e d s . a c . u k / f r e n c h / s t a f f /
david_looseley.htm
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/french/staff/
diana_holmes.htm
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/french/staff/
david_platten.htm
de la Bande dessinée (Épinal images. A tasty
prehistory of comics.) Musée de Louvain-la-
Neuve (Belgique).
More information can be found at: http://
w w w. m u s e . u c l . a c . b e / p u b /
expo_EPINAL.php
A special number of Louvain’s
review
In the frame of the year of the comics in Belgium,
Louvain’s university eponymous review is setting
a special issue devoted to comics. With the
recent opening of Hergé’s museum in Louvain-
6
la-Neuve (june 2009), comic books made a
remarkable entry in the university world, that is
celebrated by the publication of articles devoted
to Hergé’s works and reception, by specialists
such as Jan Baetens, Jean-Louis Tilleuil and Jean-
Louis Dufays. As soon as it will be published,
this special issue will be fully downloadable
here : http://www.uclouvain.be/revue-
louvain.html
Rocambole no. 47: Erckmann-
Chatrian
Eté 2009, vol. broché 14x20, 176 pages,
14.00 €
Emile Erckmann et Alexandre Chatrian font
partie de ces auteurs qui produisent
ensemble une œuvre commune, une œuvre
qui s’est placée en partie sous l’étiquette
«  populaire  » en regroupant, en 1867 chez
l’éditeur Hetzel, des textes sous le titre
Contes et romans populaires.
Noëlle Benhamou qui travaille sur l’œuvre
d’Erckmann-Chatrian depuis plusieurs
années et lui a déjà consacré plusieurs
articles — dont un sur «  Riou, illustrateur
d’Erckmann-Chatrian  », dans le n°41 du
Rocambole, coordonne ce dossier.
Sans chercher à être un tour d’horizon
complet de cette œuvre, ce dossier s’arrête
sur quelques aspects importants dont la
dimension fantastique, les personnages
féminins, l’art de la nouvelle. S’y ajoutent des
éclairages sur l’accueil d’Erckmann-Chatrian
par la critique russe, sur les caricatures qui
les visent et sur les adaptations de leurs
oeuvres à la télévision française.
Le Rocambole espère ainsi faire mieux
connaître ce romancier réaliste et populaire,
parfois étiqueté comme régionaliste ou
écrivain pour la jeunesse. Encore un auteur à
redécouvrir !
More information can be found at: http://
www.lerocambole.com/
“ C e n e re n t o l a e i l S i g n o r
Bonaventura” at the Venice
Film Festival
At the 66th Venice International Film
Festival, a restored copy of this rare movie
based on the famous Italian comics “Il
Signor Bonaventura” was screened on
September 2, in the frame of the
retrospective section dedicated to the
“forgotten” films of Italian cinema. The
restoration was curated by Sergio Toffetti for
the National Film Library of Rome.
Cenerentola e il Signor Bonaventura (1941) by
Sergio Tofano (Italy, b&w, 72') cast: Paolo
Stoppa, Silvana Jachino, Roberto Villa,
Sergio Tofano
European Imagery Collection
at the University of Texas
ARTstor is collaborating with the Harry
Ransom Center at the University of Texas at
Austin to share more than 700 images of
European prints in the Digital Library.
These images depict works in the Ransom
Center's European popular imager y
collection, which consists of woodcuts,
engravings, etchings, and mezzotints from
the 16th through 18th centuries. The prints
7

document popular culture throughout
Europe, covering a variety of subject matter,
including: political and religious satire, social
allegory, science and technology, advertising,
erotica, Dance of Death imagery, and
historical events. The European popular
imagery collection is one of several major
collections of art housed at the Ransom
Center, which include over 65,000 drawings,
paintings, sculpture, and prints from the
Americas, Europe, and Asia, spanning the
15th through the 20th centuries.
More information can be found at: http://
www.artstor.org/what-is-artstor/w-html/
col-ransom-utaustin.shtml
Colloque international “San-
Antonio et la culture
française”
8, 19 et 20 mars 2010
Université Paris-Sorbonne
Direction Scientifique: Françoise Rullier-
Theuret
2010 marquera le dixième anniversaire de la
mort de F. Dard, cette date signe à la fois
une commémoration et, par la mise à
distance qu’elle suppose, devrait favoriser
une vision d’ensemble par rapport à l’« objet
d’étude ». (…) On voudrait dans ce colloque
réunir les réflexions d’universitaires amateurs
de San-Antonio et les compétences de
véritables érudits du roman populaire. De
ces regards superposés devrait naître un
débat peut-être contradictoire et une
réflexion collective qui permettrait une
meilleure connaissance de l’œuvre. Le seul
colloque qui se soit tenu sur San-Antonio en
1965 (Robert Escarpit) avait permis à F.
Dard de se faire connaître sous son
pseudonyme et, finalement, si on avait parlé
de son écriture, on avait surtout parlé de
l’homme. Depuis ce colloque, 35 ans de
production régulière ont passé, 117 romans
ont été écrits et 6 hors-séries. Le projet 2010
voudrait mettre au premier plan la réflexion
sur le texte. La problématique proposée pour
fédérer les différentes approches, comme
l’indique le titre, vise à interroger le roman
populaire dans le rapport qu’il entretient
avec la culture dans laquelle il apparaît.
On suivra trois pistes de recherche :
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a) Comment un auteur de paralittérature
devient un objet culturel
1 - Quels enjeux autour d’un fonds
documentaire public consacré à San-
Antonio ? (Luc Savoyat, médiateur culturel à
Saint-Chef, ville natale de F. Dard)
2 - San-Antonio et la presse (titre à préciser)
(Dominique Jeannerod, M.C Queen’s
University de Belfast)
3 - Lectures féminines (Gérard Reymond,
Société des Amis de San-Antonio)
4 - Les corrections et ajustements successifs
de l’éditeur d’une édition à l’autre (Serge
Amore, Société des amis de San-Antonio)5 -
La naissance du personnage de San-Antonio
entre tradition et nouveauté (Daniel
Compère, MC Université Paris 3)
6 - San-Antonio et l’édition (Albert
Benloulou, éditeur et agent de Frédéric
Dard)
b) Comment F. Dard illustre une certaine
tradition culturelle française
7 - «  L’émasculée contraception  » ou le
calembour absolu. (Pierre Cahné, professeur,
Université Paris-Sorbonne)
8 - Le texte comique est-il traduisible  ? du
français à l’espagnol (titre à préciser)
(Pauline Largeteau, doctorante, Université de
Poitiers)
9 - Du français à l’anglais (François Gallix,
professeur émérite, Université de Paris-
Sorbonne)
10 - La tradition culinaire chez San-Antonio
(Blandine Vié, journaliste, Société des amis
de San-Antonio).
11 - Catalogues obscènes et démesure(s)
rabelaisienne(s) chez San-Antonio (titre à
préciser) (Xavier-Laurent Salvador, M.C.
Université de Paris 13)
12 - Distinguer paillardise et pornographie
(titre à préciser). (Dominique Maingueneau,
professeur, Université de Paris XII)
13 - Les mots doux (Dominique Lagorgette,
M.C. Université de Savoie)
14 - Bérurier, le comparse de la première
heure (Violaine Géraud, professeur,
Université de Lyon 3)
15 - Parodie et bonnes manières  : Le
Standinge (Florence Leca-Mercier, M.C.
Université Paris-Sorbonne)
16 – San-Antonio et la forme (Richard
Zrehen, philosophe)
17 – San-Antonio et l’enfant (Denis Pernot,
professeur, Université d’Orléans)
c) Comment San-Antonio se positionne face
à la culture
18 - San-Antonio, un vrai faux-populaire
pour lecteur averti (Jacques Migozzi,
professeur, Université de Limoges).
19 - Chapitres : rythme et lectorat populaire
(Pierre Grand-Dewyse, auteur de Moi, vous
me connaissez, ed. Rive droite, 1999, 750
pages)
20 – Le roi du français populaire malgré lui
(Johannes Westenfelder, Université de
Mainz)
21 – « Les pattes de mouches sodomisées »
Image de la littérature chez San-Antonio,
attirance et transgression (Raymond Milési,
Société des amis de San-Antonio, auteur de
San-Antonio, premier flic de France, DLM ed.
Périlla-la-Rivière, 1996, 128 pages)
22 - Peut-on distinguer San-Antonio et F.
Dard, sous le «  je  » qui les réunit  ? (titre à
9
préciser) (Bernard Wagnon M.C. Université
de Grenoble, INPG)
23 - « Toute ma vie, je me suis fait une certaine idée
de la France, San-Antonio aussi  » (étude sur
La Sexualité, Le Standinge et L’Histoire de
France) – (Pascal Theuret)
24 - Grâces et disgrâces des personnages
secondaires  : comment l’idéologie s’inscrit
dans la distribution des actants (Françoise
Rullier-Theuret, M.C. Université Paris-
Sorbonne)
25 - Le commissaire San-Antonio : évolution
d’une image en 50 ans (titre à préciser)
(Maxime Gillio, secrétaire de la société des
amis de San-Antonio)
4) Call for Papers
Studies in Comics
Papers are invited for Studies in Comics, a new
international and interdisciplinary academic
journal that aims to describe the nature of
comics, to identify the medium as a distinct
art form, and to address its formal
properties. The inaugural edition will launch
our investigations with a selection of world-
class academic articles that explore the
formal properties of comics, advancing their
own theory of comics or responding to an
established theoretical model. We also
w e l c o m e r e v i e w s o f n e w c o m i c s,
scholarship, criticism and exhibitions, as well
as unpublished creative work.   Groensteen
We are now inviting the following
submissions:
Articles of 4,000-8,000 words from any
discipline. These should have a strong
critical focus and seek to apply hitherto
26 - San-Antonio face aux autorités (Thierry
Gautier, Société des amis de San-Antonio,
rédacteur en chef du Monde de San-Antonio)
27 - Harmonie culturelle et hommage à la
nation française (Pier re Verdaguer,
University of Maryland)
Contact : Françoise Rullier-Theuret, UFR de
langue française;
colloquesana2010@hotmail.fr
unexplored theoretical approaches to the
medium of comics or respond to published
theories about the medium’s formal
properties. Possible areas include:
•Comics and visual language in the context
of communications theory
• The grammar of comics
• Narrative structure
• The relationship between panel, page, and
the multiframe
• Composition and panel transitions
• The treatment of time and space
Responses to published theorists such as
Scott McCloud, Will Eisner, Thierry
Please send all submissions to
studiesincomics@googlemail.com.
More information can be found at: http://
www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-
Journal,id=168/view,page=2/
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Call for Papers: European literature are encouraged to participate.
Graduate students are also particularly
Popular Culture and Literature
welcome with award opportunities for best
(Conference) graduate papers.
Papers are now being accepted on topics Send a short curriculum vitae and a 250-350
related to European popular culture and word abstract or/and panel proposal to
literature. All approaches and time periods mjonet@nmsu.edu or to the physical
address below by 01 October 2009.
are welcome. Some possible topics include,
Dr. M. Catherine Jonet, European Popular
but are not limited to:
Culture and Literature Area Chair
• European reality TV
MSC 3WSP
• Parkour
New Mexico State University
• Eurovision as cultural phenom
P.O. Box 30001
• Riot Grrrl Europe
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001
• Euro-pop
• European hip hop
More information can be found at: http://
• Bande Dessinée
call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/33718
• Transatlantic literature
Scholars, teachers, professionals, and others
interested in European popular culture and

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 newsletter will normally be published monthly. To be removed from our
mailing list, just click reply, and put 'remove' in the subject line. We will immediately remove your
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the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein.

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