Literature Oliver Friggieri
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Literature Oliver Friggieri The Maltese literary relationship between Italian and Maltese background has been looked at, up to a few years ago, as controversial, or worse still, as the history of Maltese culture may be said unhappy and not easily reconciliable A to reflect in various ways the history intercourse between a Latin culture, the of the whole community. Since, much presence of which in the island goes back more than in the case of larger courlffies, many centuries, and a Semitic one, ·Malta could never do without foreign characterized mainly· by the basic Arabic contacts, necessarily causative of a complex structure of the popular language which, process of influences, adaptations and owing to the island's uninterrupted reactions (and consequently only through a contacts with the outer world, adopted a study of a set of assimilations can the Romance superstructure. One has to define scholar arrive at a true definition of a the nature of th~ apparently contradictory Maltese identity), such a history, be it dialectic Italian-Maltese from a purely political, social or cultural, is bound to linguistic point of view. The language assume a comparative character. This may question, forming a central part of the be all the more so owing to the fact that island's romantic experience, owes its what one may euphemistically call foreign origin to the active presence of Italian contacts were nothing less than foreign exiled rebels in Malta during the occupations. The conditions which Risorgimento, on the one hand, and to the characterize and modify the process of, constant British efforts to introduce say, a political history of subordination English and eradicate the traditional may boil down to be the inalienable causes cultural language, on the other. After of analogous conditions in the cultural getting a clear perspective of the language field. question, which constituted one of the The basic distinction is linguistic and not major political preoccupations between necessarily cultural or psychological. 1880 and 1939, one may proceed to deal Considering the two major languages exclusively with the literary question, since which assumed, contemporarily or languages which find themselves in subsequently, the role of primary medi& interaction within the borders of the same for the elaborate expression of a community are also bound to develop community's feelings, experiences and cultural and particularly literary cross ambitions, one has to start by currents. distinguishing between Italian and Maltese. The Arabs conquered Malta in 870 A.D. (The presence of English is relatively too and thus laid the foundations for the recent to be defined as another proper language we now call Maltese. With the channel through which Maltese literature Norman conquest in 1090 A.D. the could seek new bearings. English-Maltese language of the island started to find itself literary interaction can be traced back open to extra-Arabic influences, a process directly to the modern poets and novelists which has widened its vocabulary and who effected a radical transformation in syntactic patterns, and practically exposed the sixties of this century). The dialectical it to a completely different way of life. 51 Considering the traditional presence of integrate an unwritten, popular tradition both languages in Malta, the first with a written, academically respectable conclusion is that Maltese is prior to one. Italian as a spoken language, whilst there is On the other hand, if one seeks to hardly any proof that Italian was ever identify the literary spirit of the Maltese adopted as the habitual speech medium by throughout the centuries, one should only . any local section of the population. When find it obvious to include, and give Maltese started to be written in the 17th causative prominence to, the said Italian century and then on a much wider scale in oriented Maltese production, thus rendering the 18th and 19th centuries, Italian had it the first, or preliminary, phase of the already established itself as the only and whole spectrum. This approach would seek unquestionable cultural language of the to establish the extraliterary motives which island and had a respectable literary debarred Maltese from all cultural tradition of its own. One of the earliest manifestations, and why it was socially documents in Italian, for instance, dates dishonourable to use it. Alongside this back to 1409. Among the earlier literary dichotomy, resulting in the eo-presence of works it is worth mentioning La Historia two distinct social stratifications, one di Malta nuovamente composta in ottava should also seek to define the proper rima, per Antonio Pugliese, l'anno 1565 character of the Italian tradition, delli 10 di maggio, published in Venice in something which can be done through a 1585 and preserved at the National Library comparative analysis of the peninsular of Malta. The list of later works written literature and of its forms of assimilative and published in Malta by Italian writers participation in the island during a series includes San Paolo a Malta, an epic which of cultural epochs, such as Renaissance, Vincenzo Belloni (1839-1878) issued in 1875 Baroque, Illuminism and then the first after having spent five years in the island. inklings towards Romanticism. Since the appearance of the first book Romanticism, both Latin·and German, printed locally, I Natali delle Religiose revalued the Illuminist concept of cultural Militiae de' Cavalieri (1643) by Geronimo diffusion and while questioning and Marulli, Malta has seen the constant negating the true significance and development of Italian publications, mainly practicability of cosmopolitism, fostered historical and literary. This tradition was the cult of national languages. This epoch, interrupted only a few decades ago, that is, fundamentally based on the discovery of more than a century after the real birth of the sense of personal and national a national literary tradition in the individuality, coincides with the first vernacular. serious efforts towards the rediscovery of This considerable deposit of literary Maltese as one of the most ancient output throughout the centuries, a large patrimonies of the new emerging nation, as section of which is still in manuscript form Mikiel Anton Vassalli (1764-1829) calls it at the National Library of Malta, is the in his famous Discorso preliminare, the work of both Maltese and foreign writers introduction to his Vocabo/ario maltese (who happened to live or spend a period of published in Rome in 1796. The antiquity their life on the island) alike. Thus, w·hilst of a popular language featured very Maltese has the historical priority on the significantly in the concept of nationalism level of the spoken language, Italian has which European romanticism sought to the priority of being the almost exclusive form and preach. One of the more written medium, for official and socio important results of Vassalli's political and cultural affairs, for the longest period. The scholarly contributions is the embryonic native language had only to wait for the development of a nationalistic way of arrival of a new mentality which could thinking which centred around two basic 52 aspects of the 19th century philosophy and personal disposition to recreate them aesthetics: (i) the affirmation of the singular according to one's political commitment, and collective identity (an experience flourished most during the Italian emanating from the absolute devotion the Risorgimento. In recalling the heroic romantics had for sentiment and passion, as achievements of past generations, the opposed to the old and undisputed right novelist sought to revitalize forgotten enjoyed by the "goddess reason" which myths and give dignity to the underlay, as evinced in almost all poetics since contemporary national cause. The idealized Aristotle, all previous works of art modelled depiction of remote historical experiences is with architectural precision and in a state of emotionally transformed into a vision psychological equilibrium); and (ii) the where past and present are projected cultivation and diffusion of the national towards an immediate future. The speech medium as the most sacred component objective representation of facts, characters in the definition of the patria and as the most and environments is simply a pretext for effective justification both for a dominated rendering history an epic in which the community's claiming to be a nation and for martyrdom of the individual and the the subsequent struggle against foreign rulers. national family is the only valid This new national religion promulgated by contribution. romantic Italy pervaded Malta during the In his search for an identification of the period of the Risorgimento when writers, patria the novelist is only concerned with journalists and political rebels sought refuge in translating the glories of the past into a the island, and alongside their activity in spectacular scenery which is bound to be favour of a united and independent homeland repeated at the moment in question. engaged themselves in an analogous mission: Structurally, his work tends to assume the that of inviting the Maltese themselves to fight form of an alternation between the for their own political and cultural rights depiction of creatively sublimated historical against the British colonial domination. This events and the passionate exhortation of started to give rise to an ever wider utilisation his fellow citizens towards national unity of the native language and to the gradual and redemption. The logical progression of growth of an indigenous literature fully aware facts which constitute a plot is coupled of the political, social and cultural rights of the with the formation of a patriotic community. philosophy based on a local mythology full The two genres which characterize the fullest of well-known heroes and an anonymous development of Maltese literature are the multitude of faithful, and equally valorous, poetic and the narrative. Theatre as a definitely forefathers. The Mazzinian dialectic right aesthetic experience in the modern sense is only duty is translated into a pragmatic religion: a recent achievement.