This article is based on fieldwork research conducted on the island of Gozo, part of the Republic of
Malta, during the month of July, 2012. Whilst engaging with a group of local women, it was perceived
that three important discourses were dominant in their life narratives: the idea that Gozitan women
have a ‘hard life’ (in comparison to Maltese women), that gossip is an ever present menace which
constrains life on Gozo, and the idea of ‘tradition’, which was divided between a nostalgic wish to
preserve it and the yearning to challenge the conventions that fall beneath this category. This paper
is supported by the data gathered from conversations with several women from this island (four
of them regularly, as well as about twenty others with whom I spoke casually), yet it specifically
focuses on the lives of three women who have challenged the role of the ‘typical Gozitan woman’ by
exercising their passions through different creative and artistic channels. The premise underlying
the research is that artistic and creative expression can both be a complement to and an escape from
the professional lives led by these three individuals, but also a means through which personal selffulfilment
can be achieved and exercised.peer-reviewe
