The Cartography of the Political Novel in Europe

The ultimate goal of the CAPONEU (The Cartography of the Political Novel in Europe) consortium is to reactivate the political novel in Europe (PNE) as a relevant tool for the further development and maintenance of the European project. The consortium brings together an interdisciplinary research team (consisting of literary scholars, historians, sociologists, political theorists and philosophers, educational researchers) determined to examine, first, how a specific literary genre (the political novel) is perceived in various national and cultural contexts and also used as a means of promoting, questioning, and experiencing local and global politics.

The project team explores how the PNE deals with political issues, how it contributes in its own way to the perception of local and global politics, as well as to one’s own values, norms, traditions, beliefs, and mentalities. The CAPONEU consortium does not only revisit the rich heritage of the 20th-century political novel and delves into today's emerging 21st-century political fiction, but it also makes the PNE experience relevant - both by means of research and policy recommendations - to our present understanding of the political purpose of literature in a time of crisis.