Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DUEL (Fighting with Words: Poetic Duelling and its Performance across the Mediterranean)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2019-09-01 do 2021-08-31
For centuries, local artists across the Mediterranean have entertained their communities by engaging in poetic duels organised at local festivals or special occasions. Their oral impromptu performances are often combined with shows and music. In some Mediterranean islands, this tradition is slowly dying out. DUEL put forward a comparative study of poetic duels in six European, Mediterranean islands, from East to West: Cyprus, Crete, Malta, Sardinia, Corsica and Mallorca. The goal of this interdisciplinary research was to contribute to the presentation of the poetic, musical, ethnographic and other aspects of this tradition in the form of a documentary film, in order to preserve the spirit and beauty of local historical heritage.
At the heart of DUEL were two central questions: How are poetic duels performed, and what do they mean for both the producers (the performers) and the consumers (the audience) of this practice in the six chosen islands? Rather than looking at poetry or music in isolation, DUEL brought the poetic, musical, ethnographic, gender and performative aspects of this practice together in a ‘bottom-up’ study that put the people involved in poetic duelling centre stage. DUEL’s interdisciplinary approach combined methods from ethnomusicology, life writing, visual anthropology, oral and cultural history, in order to bring performers from the six islands together on the screen.
While DUEL was informed by theory, it did not get side-tracked by it. The emphasis from the start had been on creating a vivid portrait of this performance practice that could have the greatest possible impact on academic and non-academic audiences alike. This is in line with EU’s policy for making culture ‘accessible and inclusive’. DUEL has thus contributed to the understanding and preservation of European intangible heritage, against an increasing trend of homogenisation of both the production and the consumption of culture.
At the heart of DUEL were two central questions: How are poetic duels performed, and what do they mean for both the producers (the performers) and the consumers (the audience) of this practice in the six chosen islands? Rather than looking at poetry or music in isolation, DUEL brought the poetic, musical, ethnographic, gender and performative aspects of this practice together in a ‘bottom-up’ study that put the people involved in poetic duelling centre stage. DUEL’s interdisciplinary approach combined methods from ethnomusicology, life writing, visual anthropology, oral and cultural history, in order to bring performers from the six islands together on the screen.
While DUEL was informed by theory, it did not get side-tracked by it. The emphasis from the start had been on creating a vivid portrait of this performance practice that could have the greatest possible impact on academic and non-academic audiences alike. This is in line with EU’s policy for making culture ‘accessible and inclusive’. DUEL has thus contributed to the understanding and preservation of European intangible heritage, against an increasing trend of homogenisation of both the production and the consumption of culture.
The project began in September 2019 with building collaborations across the islands involved. In December 2019 the Widening Fellow (WF), Dr Nicoletta Demetriou, travelled to Sardinia, where she presented DUEL at the Musas e Terras conference, organised by the University of Cagliari and the Campos Musical Association. In addition to the presentation of academic papers, this five-day conference included a performative part, which brought together oral poets from different parts of the world (e.g. Sardinia, Corsica, the Basque Country, Argentina, etc.) on stage. The WF had the chance to meet several of them and discuss their different poetic traditions in person. In January 2020, the WF travelled to Mallorca for a first period of fieldwork, and to attend a series of poetic duelling performances that are part of a yearly festival organised on the island around St Antony’s feast day (17 January). There, the WF met and informally interviewed several oral poets, in preparation for the fieldwork and filming that was due to take place later in the same year.
The project’s initial design had included plans for a book, an ethnographic documentary, as well as a festival. The entire project was, by its very nature, fieldwork-based. Several fieldwork trips had been arranged ahead of time, to coincide with festivals and celebrations taking place on each island, in order to meet the goals of the project. However, the restrictions brought about by Covid-19 (in this case, the near impossibility of travel over a period of many months, as well as the cancellation of all music- and poetry-related festivals that the project was meant to record from March 2020 onwards) had meant that DUEL’s goals had to be adjusted to the new realities. In consultation with DUEL’s EC officer, in September 2020 it was decided that the project’s research plan and deliverables would be adjusted accordingly, so as to ensure the safety of not only the WF, but also of the poets, musicians, and audience members involved in it.
After assessing the new situation and adapting the research to what it was still possible to do, a new plan was put forward. This made provisions for a new documentary, focussing on the Cypriot duelling tradition and its younger representatives, since the WF was based in Cyprus, where she could still conduct interviews and film, albeit on a limited scale. When travelling within certain European destinations became possible again, the project’s research plan was assessed anew and readjusted. Between June and August 2021 fieldwork and filming took place on four of the other islands involved (Malta, Sardinia, Corsica, and Mallorca). This was achieved by employing a network of collaborators on each individual island, consisting of one local researcher and one local crew. The material from the four islands has now been collected and sent to the WF in Cyprus.
Initial research on Crete (the sixth island involved) showed that the tradition of poetic duelling has all but died out there in recent years. Some of the remaining poets are now advanced in age, and so unable to collaborate on the project. It was thus decided to move the research to Rhodes, where a few poets/duellers can still be found. We are now in discussions with musicians and poets there, to see how we could get hold of relevant material. Additionally, the WF is currently exploring the possibility of obtaining material from archives in Greece; material from her own, personal archive of fieldwork recordings might also be used.
Filming for the Cyprus-based documentary, provisionally entitled ‘Poetic duels: Young tsiattista poets in Cyprus’, has finished; the film is now in post-production. The material for the second documentary, provisionally entitled ‘Fighting with words: Poetic duelling in the Mediterranean’, will now be carefully reviewed. After transcription and translation have taken place, its editing and production will begin.
The project’s initial design had included plans for a book, an ethnographic documentary, as well as a festival. The entire project was, by its very nature, fieldwork-based. Several fieldwork trips had been arranged ahead of time, to coincide with festivals and celebrations taking place on each island, in order to meet the goals of the project. However, the restrictions brought about by Covid-19 (in this case, the near impossibility of travel over a period of many months, as well as the cancellation of all music- and poetry-related festivals that the project was meant to record from March 2020 onwards) had meant that DUEL’s goals had to be adjusted to the new realities. In consultation with DUEL’s EC officer, in September 2020 it was decided that the project’s research plan and deliverables would be adjusted accordingly, so as to ensure the safety of not only the WF, but also of the poets, musicians, and audience members involved in it.
After assessing the new situation and adapting the research to what it was still possible to do, a new plan was put forward. This made provisions for a new documentary, focussing on the Cypriot duelling tradition and its younger representatives, since the WF was based in Cyprus, where she could still conduct interviews and film, albeit on a limited scale. When travelling within certain European destinations became possible again, the project’s research plan was assessed anew and readjusted. Between June and August 2021 fieldwork and filming took place on four of the other islands involved (Malta, Sardinia, Corsica, and Mallorca). This was achieved by employing a network of collaborators on each individual island, consisting of one local researcher and one local crew. The material from the four islands has now been collected and sent to the WF in Cyprus.
Initial research on Crete (the sixth island involved) showed that the tradition of poetic duelling has all but died out there in recent years. Some of the remaining poets are now advanced in age, and so unable to collaborate on the project. It was thus decided to move the research to Rhodes, where a few poets/duellers can still be found. We are now in discussions with musicians and poets there, to see how we could get hold of relevant material. Additionally, the WF is currently exploring the possibility of obtaining material from archives in Greece; material from her own, personal archive of fieldwork recordings might also be used.
Filming for the Cyprus-based documentary, provisionally entitled ‘Poetic duels: Young tsiattista poets in Cyprus’, has finished; the film is now in post-production. The material for the second documentary, provisionally entitled ‘Fighting with words: Poetic duelling in the Mediterranean’, will now be carefully reviewed. After transcription and translation have taken place, its editing and production will begin.
DUEL aimed (a) to situate poetic duelling in its specific performative contexts by studying poetic duels as ‘events’ and by putting the performers themselves at the centre, and (b) to offer a comparative treatment of this performance practice across six Mediterranean, European islands. By placing the people involved at the centre of this study, DUEL aimed not simply to interpret an event, but to let it be interpreted by the very actors involved in it. The two ethnographic documentaries being produced by DUEL are doing precisely that and are, to the best of our knowledge, the first ones to deal with poetic duelling on such a scale.
This ‘bottom-up’ approach ultimately aims to produce an ‘accessible and inclusive’ study (as per EU’s policy; see EU Strategic Framework, n.d.) – in this case, two documentaries – of poetic duelling, record the voices of older performers before it is too late, and ‘give back’ to the communities involved.
This ‘bottom-up’ approach ultimately aims to produce an ‘accessible and inclusive’ study (as per EU’s policy; see EU Strategic Framework, n.d.) – in this case, two documentaries – of poetic duelling, record the voices of older performers before it is too late, and ‘give back’ to the communities involved.