Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CaTPoP (Children and Transnational Popular Print, 1700-1900)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2019-09-30 do 2021-09-29
CaTPoP aims not only to advance the understanding of the relevance of juvenile audience for the market of popular print, opening new perspectives in the fields of the history of reading and publishing and of children’s literature, but also supports the curation of cultural heritage. Through secondments and partnerships in different countries and sectors (two museums and a Digital Humanities lab) it raised awareness and expertise among professionals. The project enhanced the understanding of printed materials often underrepresented in public outreach activities for the general audience, as they are perceived as less valuable than other more refined or more renowned items. It thus contributed to the recovery and interpretation of a significant part of print culture that has been for too long overlooked.
The key points that emerged are the following:
- Cheap and ephemeral materials represented a relevant opportunity for children from different backgrounds to read and play with cultural artefacts;
- In many cases well established sub-genres of cheap print were chosen by publishers as formats to experiment with when they were actively searching for new ways to address a segment of the market previously overlooked, that of young people;
- This happened at different paces in different European regions as a consequence of specificities such as religious confessions, schooling systems, advancement of commerce, that were likely to affect the development of a juvenile audience for books and prints; nonetheless some formats and contents appeared in different regions contributing to the development of shared cultural references among different populations;
- These materials possibly represent the most democratic publishing genre in pre-modern book history: they could address peasants, working class audiences, but also children from more affluent families, in that they were easily understandable and enjoyable by semi-literate book users.
The findings have been communicated to a diverse audience through:
- scholarly outputs, both in traditional publications (articles, chapters and a research monograph in preparation) and digital formats (a dataset, a curated collection in a virtual research environment);
- public outreach activities, that have allowed the general audience to learn about the existence of printed items almost unknown to non-experts (pictorial didactic tools, cheaply illustrated booklets and broadsides, paper toys, paper theatres…). This has happened through three different exhibitions (of which one was online) and related activities (publication of a catalogue, guided tours, public launching events).
Discussing the reading materials that were encountered by common people in their everyday lives, CaTPoP is also providing new evidence for the history of reading, a vital field of cultural and social history that in recent times has become one of the new frontiers of the discipline.
Besides allowing these advancements in the knowledge of our past, CaTPoP is increasing the expertise of professionals of cultural heritage, putting them in a better position for interpreting the collections they are in charge of and presenting them to the general public, thus enhancing the understanding that non-experts have of past societies.