Will Epic save classics? A survey for my MSc dissertation on online classical communities.
Hi everyoneee!!
My dissertation project investigates how online communities engage with classics, and everything started from Epic the Musical. I was already aware of the community around classics; I have been a Percy Jackson fan for years, but the impact that Epic had online is honestly unprecedented. From this observation, I decided the topic of my Master's dissertation.
I'm particularly interested in hearing from creators making Epic-related transformative work, fanfiction, fanart, animatics, cosplay, edits, or anything else. I'm also interested in classical/mythology creators more broadly (Percy Jackson, Greek mythology, etc.), if you know any. BTW, I use the term classic/classical broadly to cover the antiquity period up until the fall of the Roman Empire (a personal decision based on too much research).
I've created an anonymous questionnaire for creators (18+) of classical transformative works to share their work and experience: https://forms.gle/FsTUyeHmPZUQKn4u6 .
I aim to make academia aware of the power that fandoms like this one have in spreading classics and educating people on them, while I also hope to bring a new lens to classical reception by relating it to fandom. Personally, I think fandom will save the humanities. With the humanities crisis we've been experiencing for years, fewer people are entering these fields through traditional routes, but fandom is where people are actually discovering and falling in love with classics right now. Epic is a perfect example of that. If academia doesn't recognise that, it risks missing where the subject is actually staying alive.
I hope you all can help me! Feel free to share the questionnaire with anyone you know who fits the criteria. Do reach out or comment if you have any questions!