Maltese literature under the Knights of St John

The presence of the Order of St John in Malta could only be expected to consolidate and develop further the cultural tradition already existing among the educated class. The fundamental aspect was Christianity, namely a religion which also assumes the role of national identification. This tradition tended to simplify matters which had nothing to do with faith in itself The older spoken language, Maltese, an originally Arabic dialect which goes back to the Arab occupation (870-1090), had no written or recognized culture of its own, and was in principle identified with illiteracy. In the late 18th century it started to gain the respect of the intelligentia and to be used for literary purposes on an ever-widening scale. Christianity and Latinity actually embody the more evident features of the island's cultural identity. The Order of St John, therefore, had no added problems of a strictly cultural nature when it arrived in Malta and established itself as the sole protagonist in both political and cultural affairs. It could easily insert itself within the pre-existent pattern of behaviour and thought and further enhance it by attracting the attention of Maltese men of culture.peer-reviewe

Poetry, ecocriticism and the concepts of the global south

This material forms part of the Oliver Friggieri Collection.The manifold implications of globalisation in all its varied fonns have long been fonning part of the central theme of poetic inspiration. Since the ancient Greek poets the environment has featured both as a physical context within which they could construct their own imaginative and experiential project, and as an ethereal background against which writers could set their own interior landscape. The human persona of the Renaissance and then Illuminism is already a being of global pretensions, an offshoot of the ideal figure which classical sculptors and poets had already defined as cosmopolitan, namely global, a citizen whose patria is the whole planet, not just a restricted stretch ofland known as a nation. This conception far predates Ernest Renan's assumption that national states are perhaps not necessarily meant to exist forever. Poetically, such a belief stemmed from one simple assumption, much aloof from any shade ofcontroversy: humans are inhabitants ofone wholesome, single planet.peer-reviewe

Terre e uomini nel Mediterraneo : radici dentro

Una storia della letteratura, e particolarmente della poesia. maltese deve necessariamente risolversi in una storia del la cultura tradizionale dell'isola. in un 'esperienza che cerchi le sue radici net terreno assai piu vasto e piu ricco della letteratura italiana, quella che fino a poco tempo fa costituiva l' unico punto di riferimento per gli autori maltesi. e che per interi secoli era stata considerate Ia letteratura madre dell'isola. Percio, partendo dalla premessa che Ia cultura di Malta e stata per ininterrotti secoli Ia cultura italiana, si deve anche esplorare una linea di contatto e di formate e tematica continuitit tra l'antica letteratura itaIiana e Ia moderna letteratura maltese. Si tratta, in ultima analisi, di una sola ed unica storia letteraria. ma espressa in due lingue. l'italiano e il maltese.peer-reviewe

Aktar priedki bil-Malti ta' Frangisku Saverju Baldacchino (1774-1860)

This study seeks to introduce the name of Frangisku Saverju Baldacchino within the history of early religious prose in Maltese. It acknowledges the importance of his contribution towards the development of the language on both the spoken and the written levels, and identifies a number of typicaL stylistic features. A few of the sermons written by Baldacchino in Maltese are being written and transcribed by the author from the original manuscripts, and published here for the first time.peer-reviewe

Il-poeżija ta' Albert Marshall: Studju ta' Oliver Friggieri

Oliver Friggieri jagħmel studju dwar il-ġabra tal-poeżiji “Diaspora” ta’ Albert Marshall.N/