Unforgettable Stories:
DEVELOPING CREATIVE METHODOLOGIES TO REVIVE ENGANGERED CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SICILY
Our project aims to rediscover and promote the stories of Pietro Fudduni - the most popular Sicilian folk poet of the 17th century - through different media forms. Although some of Fudduni’s tales were transcribed and republished in the 20th century, the majority of his work survives only in the oral folk tradition and particularly in the memory of Sicilian-speaking elders. The first part of the project will involve ethnographic research in Sicily to collect and transcribe Fudduni’s stories. We will then produce an animated short film and an art book based on the stories collected, and a website hosting a digital archive.
​This project is important because it proposes new creative methodologies to revive and valorise endangered cultural heritage. As such, this project provides a blueprint for a set of innovative cross-disciplinary methodologies designed to protect and promote endangered indigenous knowledges across different cultural contexts.​ Recently, scholars have recognised Sicily as a postcolonial subject that has suffered from decades of centralisation and exploitation of resources on the part of both the Italian state and organised crime (Berruto 2018, Tiné 2024). Following the forced annexation of Sicily in the second half of the 19th century, the Italian kingdom systematically marginalised the local culture and language, which began to be associated with educational inferiority, backwardness, and a lack of opportunities.​ Unlike other postcolonial contexts, Sicily has been particularly slow to protect and valorise its unique linguistic and cultural heritage. As a result of this, a significant portion of the vast reservoir of Sicilian folk stories is now endangered. This project aims to protect this disappearing intangible heritage and actively ‘unforget it’ through its retelling by creative and digital means.​​ The stories of Fudduni are key in this endeavour because they elaborate on core themes of Sicilian cultural and linguistic background.
