Popular with writers and intellectuals as well as readers and fans of texts, from coffee houses of the 18th and 19th centuries to big gatherings with tents in summer in the 20th century to online festivals under the pandemic last year, literary events have long been thought to be the heartbeat of culture. But what is exactly meant by it when we talk about a literary event? What can they bring in? What do they require? With them or without them, how would reading and writing evolve? What kind of communities can they form? How do they vary from a society to another one? Continue reading →

Censorship for the benefit of “protecting the common good” has been commonplace in Russian art for some considerable time now. From Stalin’s dictatorship to the controlling rule of Cold War Soviet Union, up to this very day, censorship and restrictions in the arts are still very much alive. Continue reading →

Pierre Nora, best known for his research on memory (he coined the notion of “places of memory”), defines himself as follows: “I am not what is called a great historian, but I served history”. But there is more to learn in these pages, a self-edited anthology covering more than three decades of intellectual work and commitment, than this admirable mix of modesty and pride. Continue reading →

The AIPI School will be held at the Universiteit Gent (Belgium) from 12 to 15 July 2021 and was created with the idea of bringing together early career researchers (doctoral or postdoctoral level) and include them into a recently created network of scholars working on Italian comics (SnIF: Searching’n Investigating Fumetti). Continue reading →

Why was the birth control pill a game changer in the twentieth century and why has it become even more controversial today? These are the central questions we discuss and try to answer through our exhibition. Continue reading →

Interested in photography and stories? Ever heard of photonovels? We are eleven Cultural Studies Master’s students at KU Leuven and we are proud to invite you to a special exhibition on the topic of Belgian photonovels. Continue reading →

The crime genre, arguably the most popular narrative genre in Europe, is an ideal object of study for evaluating how the process of Europeanisation has impacted the forms of cultural production, distribution and reception. Have you ever wondered what has made crime narratives so popular throughout Europe? If yes, this course is a perfect fit for you! Continue reading →

A piece of good news in these strange times: in two weeks’ time the exhibition “Photo-Lit: Photonovel Culture in Belgium” opens its doors at the University Library of Leuven! Continue reading →

DETECt is a large collaborative initiative that involves scholars, teachers, students, professionals of the creative industries, and the general public in investigating how practices of transnational production, distribution, and consumption in the field of popular culture have facilitated the appearance of engaging representations of Europe’s cultural identity.

The project researches the popular genre of crime novels and TV series, and in particular, tries to find out what explains the successful circulation of e.g. the European Noir. Continue reading →