FRAME - Framing Medievalisms: Historiography, Cultural Heritage, Media Communication and Languages in Italy (1980-2022)

Areas: SH - Social Sciences and Humanities

Abstract:
The project aims to investigate the phenomenon of Medievalism in Italy from 1980, the watershed year of the publication of “The Name of the Rose,” to the present day. The aim is to identify in a systematic and multidisciplinary way the contribution of Italian research and culture to the construction of contemporary Medievalism in the West and the uses and ideologies hidden in the late twentieth-century process of global acculturation centered on the meta-historical and atemporal Middle Ages. While Medievalism is a growing and evolving cultural phenomenon, there is a lack of analytical and comprehensive studies acknowledging its different contributions (academic, cultural, social, multimedia) and evolutionary phases. The research aims to fill this gap to increase knowledge and awareness of the phenomenon in the Italian academy and society. The analysis will explore five fundamental themes, namely: • Global Medievalism (Italian Medievalism in relation to international Medievalism); • Academic Medievalism (Medievalism in academic historiography through the investigation of the archives of historical institutes and the academic and popular bibliography); • Media Medievalism (Medievalism through the media, publishing, audiovisual, digital); • Public Medievalism (the interpretation of Medievalism in the territory by local realities in festivals, and reenactments); • Literary Medievalism (Medievalism in the work of authors such as Fabrizio De André, Umberto Eco, Dario Fo, Mario Luzi...). The different Units, thanks also to their specific competencies and ongoing collaborations, contribute to the various themes in a complementary way: the Rome La Sapienza Unit will work on Global and Academic Medievalisms, the Urbino Unit on Public and Literary Medievalisms and the Bologna Unit on Media Medievalism. The project foresees the creation of a FRAME platform for sharing research, to be put in open access
in order to make the contents of the database available for the public. An experimental WebApp will also be designed to disseminate research results on a significant case study. Traditional research outputs such as conferences, publications, podcasts and social content and other public engagement products are also planned.

Duration of the project: 28/09/2023 – 28/09/2025

Co-Principal Investigator: FRANCESCA ROVERSI MONACO

Principal investigator: UMBERTO LONGO (Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”

Partnership: Università degli Studi di ROMA "La Sapienza" Università degli Studi di Urbino “Carlo Bo” Budget of the University of Bologna: 63.307 EUR

ERC sectors: SH6_7 MEDIEVAL HISTORY SH5_8 CULTURAL STUDIES, CULTURAL IDENTITIES AND MEMORIES, CULTURAL HERITAGE SH6_1 HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY AND METHODS IN HISTORY, INCLUDING THE ANALYSIS OF DIGITAL DATA