CAPONEU examines how people in different national and cultural contexts engage with contemporary political issues and thereby participate in shaping contemporary European societies and politics. The aim is to assess the political novel in Europe (PNE) as an important element of European political, social and cultural heritage and as a tool for community building and European advocacy. CAPONEU brings together an interdisciplinary research team (history, sociology of literature and education, literary and cultural studies, political theory) dedicated to examining how the PNE is perceived in different contexts, how it contributes to the understanding of local and global politics (values, norms, traditions, beliefs, mentalities) and how it can be used as a means to experience, question and promote European local and global politics.
As the European project has been destabilised by crises (economic, political, migration, public health, climate, war) in recent decades, the question is how the PNE can become an active tool to influence people’s perceptions and strengthen societies' resilience to crises (HE Work Programme 2021–2022).
CAPONEU has five objectives:
1. to select a representative PNE corpus and examine how PN as a literary genre shapes and changes perceptions defined by beliefs, values, traditions, history, economy, culture, age, gender, environment, illnesses and wars.
2. to question how PNE as a social phenomenon shapes and changes people’s relationship to Europe’s historical and cultural past.
3. to explore how the perceptions documented and formed by the selected PNEs shape contemporary responses to the European project.
4. to investigate how the perceptions formed by the examined PNEs influence society’s resilience during crises.
5. to develop and publish policy recommendations and materials for formal and non-formal education focussing on political education, community building and European advocacy. CAPONEU’s research and innovation activities develop in continuous exchange with a series of stakeholders and business partners. These two dimensions make the project particularly innovative: not only its research topic (the neglected heritage of the PNE), but also its bifurcated practices through which its research findings are activated and re-integrated into research and policymaking.
CAPONEU’s research and innovation activities develop in constant dialogue with a range of stakeholders and business partners. These two dimensions make the project particularly innovative: not only its research topic (the neglected heritage of the PNE), but also its bifurcated practices through which its research results are activated and integrated into research and policy-making.
