The idea of our project arises from a question: what do European teenagers read? This question inevitably led us to many others: what is a Spanish teenager currently reading? And one from Italy? Do boys and girls read the same books? Could a teenager from the Czech Republic and another from Italy find a common place around a book? What have Europeans read for the last 60 years? How has juvenile literature contributed to the European Cultural Heritage? What will be left of it for the future?
As you can see, there are many questions that arise around juvenile literature which, since Jules Verne, has been able to create like no other authentic universes that impregnate the daily life of millions of people: The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Adventures of Tintin, Asterix and Obelix, etc. are European phenomena which have crossed the borders of space and time and which have built the European heritage as a testimony of those who read them. We also want to identify other more local phenomena.
The recent history of the member states of the Union has been complex: the dictatorship in Spain or the communist regimes of the Eastern countries have created their own juvenile literature- for example, in Spain, Roberto Alcázar y Pedrín, or El Capitán Trueno are examples that have not stood the test of time. They were born under a very specific political regime, but they have also become part of the lives of those who read them and have shaped the European culture, contributing to build a heritage worthy of being kept for the future as a testimony of the human making of history. Let’s discover them. We cannot ignore that books also make us travel to cities and times, places that we visit for the first time through their pages.
That literature turns places and cities into characters of their stories, giving us testimony of the European Artistic Heritage- an example of which would be the quasi-gothic Barcelona from the books of Carlos Ruiz Zafón or Federico Mocchia’s Rome. Ours is an ambitious project that intends to cover research aspects of current juvenile literature as well as that of the last 60 years, collaboration with local entities to show our heritage to the community through exhibitions and documentaries, visits to emblematic literary places such as Toledo, Madrid, Dublin, etc. workshops on literary creation or training activities for teachers aimed at fostering reading and using the latest methodologies or ICT. In short, our main challenge is to obtain an in-depth knowledge of youth literature and its role in creating European cultural heritage, in order to share it with society. That research must be carried out by the actual readers - our European students- who will be committed and active in the development of the activities, leaving the product of their work for generations to come. That is why this project should be funded.
IES Marmaria de Membrilla, (España). Centro coordinador del proyecto.
St Aidan´s Community School, Dublin (Irlanda)
Killinarden Community School, Dublin (Irlanda)
Obchodní akademie, Pisek (República Checa)
Liceo Scientifico Amaldi, Bitetto, (Italia