Descrizione del progetto
Indagare le narrazioni meritocratiche in letteratura e attraverso di essa
Le narrazioni sociali della meritocrazia si riflettono in molte forme letterarie e artistiche. Sono presenti in opere teatrali, romanzi, diari di viaggio, film e manifesti artistici. Tramite la colonizzazione e la globalizzazione, queste narrazioni hanno viaggiato molto. Ciò è particolarmente evidente nei contesti anglofoni. Finanziato dal Consiglio Europeo della Ricerca, il progetto MERLIT esplorerà il modo in cui le narrazioni meritocratiche plasmano le forme letterarie, nonché il modo in cui esse sono a loro volta plasmate da queste ultime. Il progetto indagherà sul modo in cui le narrazioni meritocratiche vengono scritte e fatte circolare culturalmente, sostenendo che la loro adozione in forme letterarie permette di comprendere lo «spirito» di un’epoca e di un contesto particolari. Infine, MERLIT mirerà a comprendere i cambiamenti nell’articolazione di valore, merito e successo nel corso del tempo, dal XVII al XXI secolo.
Obiettivo
MERLIT is the first systematic, diachronic and comparative investigation of meritocratic narratives in literature. Meritocratic thinking manifests itself in powerful narratives across the globe, from the constitutionally embedded “pursuit of happiness” to neoliberal narratives of self-enhancement. MERLIT investigates forms of these narratives, which are embraced for their seemingly empowering and universalist appeal, but also criticised for their enmeshment with structures of domination and privilege. MERLIT explores how meritocratic narratives are written, how they are written into cultures, but also how they are written back to in text forms that have shaped the zeitgeist of particular moments respectively. Although research into meritocratic thinking is a vibrant interdisciplinary field, it is characterised (1) by a lack of investigations into the formal principles underpinning – or challenging – meritocratic articulations, (2) by a narrow focus on (white) Western contexts and (3) by a concentration on recent developments. To counter these gaps, (1) MERLIT explores in six work packages how practices of writing have played, and continue to play, crucial roles in shaping meritocratic articulations but also critiques thereof; (2) MERLIT expands the contextual focus of existing scholarship by engaging with radical writing practices from the Global South and a range of transculturally entangled anglophone contexts; eventually, (3) MERLIT challenges perceptions of meritocratic thinking and its critiques as recent phenomena by engaging with changing forms of articulating value, merit and success from the 17th century to the present. Situated at the intersections of literary history, new formalist theory and cultural translation, MERLIT not only offers a literary history of meritocratic thought, but significantly advances our understanding of the workings of a set of hegemonic forms in and through writing, and of the formative, worldmaking role of literature.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsIstituzione ospitante
1050 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgio