Project description
Exploring child sexual abuse in fiction
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a major social issue which is often depicted in fictional works such as novels, films and television series. However, these depictions are widely overlooked in literary and cultural studies and their important cultural implications are not yet understood. The EU-funded CSAReps project aims to change this by investigating the culturally significant yet neglected body of fictional works depicting CSA and exploring their potential role in shaping people's understandings of CSA. It will establish a foundational mapping of representational strategies in CSA fictions; undertake an empirical investigation of audience responses to CSA fictions; and explore links between the representational strategies and audience responses, establishing a model that sketches the relationship between CSA fictions and their effects.
Objective
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a critical issue facing contemporary societies, and one which inspires many fictional representations in creative cultural works. Despite CSA's prevalence and potentially serious consequences, it remains relatively taboo and stakeholders refer to a societal 'flinch', or aversion, from engaging with the issue, which hinders survivors' wellbeing. This avoidant response seems to have been inadvertently replicated in literary and cultural studies, in which CSA as a theme is almost completely overlooked, meaning that its full cultural implications are currently unknown. The CSAReps project will address this by exploring the culturally significant but neglected body of works which depict CSA, examining not only their representational strategies but also their potential role in shaping people's understandings of CSA. The objectives are:
1. To analyse the themes, form and emotional cues in CSA fictions from key genres (crime, horror, young adult, popular general) in the culturally prevalent forms of literature, film and television, providing a foundational mapping of these representations and opening a new and long-overdue research horizon in literary and cultural studies.
2. To explore how CSA fiction may inform social attitudes by performing the first ever empirical investigation of audience responses to it (including the general public and CSA survivors). Identifying influence will be challenging, but could transform our understanding of how public views on abuse are formed, impacting disciplines like psychology and social work for which such knowledge is key.
3. To develop a new conceptual framework which interlinks thematic and empirical approaches to cultural scholarship to allow the mapping of CSA fictions to be related to the audience response findings, ultimately yielding a model suggesting the relationship between CSA fictions and their effects.
This transferrable framework will support explorations of abuse representations across cultures and media.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
4 DUBLIN
Ireland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.