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 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, · 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 Norman conquest in 1090 A.D. the could seek new bearings. English- 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 . 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 (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 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 promulgated by contribution. romantic 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. Consequently, in giving God has given to every citizen the right to a panoramic picture, any basic assessment is a homeland, but it is the citizen's own duty bound to be conducted in terms of the to build it up. work of the poets and the novelists, with This set of thematic components the particular contribution of the dramatists synthesizes the main character both of the dovetailing into this mainstream. Italian historical of the Risorgimento

nPri nrl !:a nrJ nf t hP 1\.lf 4;:1] tpc,:t. r\M13 n.tr~ tt.on ; n .r---.o.&.....,._ ...... _ .._...... I.Y.I.""'JL"-<.J .... -.1..1.¥' 'f'fJ..l'-'-"-'.1.1 J.J.J. Italian and then in Maltese, of the late Prose decades of the 19th century and of the first half of the 20th. The reasons for this History as a national mythology harmonious assimilation, already hinted at in broader terms, are essentially two: (i) The historical novel, based on a subjective local writers had an exclusively Italian compromise between objective data and a education and consequently they either

53 wrote in the island's (incidentally Italian) atmosphere which, in the long run, had to cultural language according to the make them realize that the national cause prevalent "foreign" criteria or sought to could be expressed effectively only through translate them into their early Maltese the language of the people, adequately experiments; as a matter of fact the more handled according to the people's own important writers, such as Gan Anton aptitudes. The new dimension which Vassallo (1817-1868), Guze Muscat Maltese, as the traditionally neglected Azzopardi (1853-1972), Anton Manwel idiom of the masses, profoundly needed Caruana (1838-1907) and later Anastasju was now provided by the modern aesthetics Cuschieri (1876-1962), Dun Karm which conceived the popular speech (1871-1961) and Ninu Cremona (1880-1972) medium as the best one for expressing the started their literary experience in Italian; heightened emotion of a whole nation and and (ii) the island's political situation easily as the only one which could suit the new presented itself as analogous to, if not even content of art: the construction of a as the direct side-effect of, the peninsula's national identity in terms of its unification movement. This was enhanced differentiating factors, the first of which all the more by the active presence of such was the language itself. prominent exiles as Gabriele Rossetti, The process of local political Francesco Orioli, Luigi Settembrini, emancipation and the history of the earlier Francesco Crispi, Rosalino Pilo, Tommaso stages of literature in the vernacular amply Zauli, Sajani, Francesco De Sanctis and testify to the fact that this modern many others. conception owes its dynamic presence in Various rebels were very active as Malta, and particularly within the literary journalists and literary writers, and their circles, to the island's complex participation participation in the cultural life of the in the Italian Risorgimento. This island contributed a lot towards the immediately suggested an inherent diffusion of the concept of literature fully contradiction with regard to Maltese committed with the national cause. On the nationalistic literature written in Italian. It other hand, numerous non-Italian writers was now up to open-minded writers to visited Malta from time to time and employ the uncultivated dialect in order to recalled such experience in their memoirs. express congruently this vision which The list includes the names of George concerned literature, and society in Sandy (1611), Patrick Bryden (1770), an equal manner. On the other hand, the Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1804), Lord Maltese novelist, like any other colleague, Byron (1809, 1811), Sir Walter Scott was faced with an added challenge, since (1831), Hans Christian Andersen (1841), he was simultaneously expected not only to William Makepeace Thackeray (1844), interpret a national experience in Maltese D.H. Lawrence (1920) and Rupert Brooke but also to make the dialect assume a (1915). respectable literary character. The Maltese historical novelists writing This double programme was decidedly in Italian, such as Gan Anton Vassallo pursued by Anton Manwel Caruana whose (Alessandro Inguanez, 1861, and Jnez Farrug (1889), considered to be the Wignacouri, 1862), Ferdinando Giglio (La first literary novel in !\1a!tese, succeeded in Bella Maltea ossia Caterina Desguanez, fusing stylistic ambition with patriotic 1872), Ramiro Barbaro di San Giorgio (Un involvement, thus initiating a movement of Martire, 1878) and Gaetano Gauci (Il language-cum-literature revival which Condannato at Supplizio del Rogo, 1905, lasted up to about two decades ago, when L 'Ultimo Assalto del Forte San Michele, a new crop of writers reacted against 1907, Maria Valdes, 1909, and Notte di traditional obsolete patterns in order to Do/ore, 1915) were creating a socio-literary come to terms with a thoroughly different

54 reading public. major step in the romantic direction. The The structure of the Italian historical almost religious cult of heroes (the more novel assumed a twofold nature: the important being Mikiel Anton Vassalli and author could either derive his central plot Dun Mikiel Xerri) was enormously fostered from known history and set it within a through their aesthetic reincarnation and fictitious surrounding, or peripheral plot furnished the hitherto submissive (e.g. Massimo D' Azeglio's Niccolo de' community with another unifying emblem Lapi), or create a central plot himself and and with a fundamental justification for insert it harmoniously within the limits of a the claim of ethnic distinction and historically authentic, although partially ancestral dignity. transformed, background. This second The main line of progression, however, structure, popularized mainly by Manzoni's seems to be the way in which later novelists I Promessi Sposi, was chosen by Caruana have gradually moved away from whose primary aim was to establish a Caruana's elegaic leitmotif and arrived constant parallelism between a (fictitious) at a vision of victory. This passage family problem and a (historical) national from the negative to the positive, crisis. A structural analysis of the plot from the elegy to the epic, not only scheme would show that the parallelism is implies a radical shift of emphasis so meticulously built up that it ultimately (the future instead of the past) but reduces the private affair (or central story) also proves that the narrator was to an allegory of the population's abandoning his former role of dignified unfortunate condition under foreign rule chronicler and assuming that of a prophet (the outer plot). A synthesis of the two or leader. This transformation is narrative models was attempted by Guze explainable through reference to the Muscat Azzopardi, whose Toni Bajada, political situation which in the first decades 1878, Viku Mason, 1881, Susanna, 1883, of the twentieth century reach higher levels Cejlu Tonna, 1886, Censu Barbara, 1893, of development. and Na:?ju Ellul, 1909, revolve around the Together with the formative discovery of figure of an artistically modified a hitherto neglected epos, this narrative 'historical' protagonist who comes to life tradition recognized the fundamental poetic against a similarly reconstructed historical and creative value of popular heritage. setting. This compromise reached further Following the footsteps of Herder, the stages of development through Guze brothers Schlegel, Tommaseo, Berchet and Aquilina's Talit Tliet Saltniet (Under Three other famous theorists of cultural Reigns), 1938, and Guze Galea's Zmien democracy, romanticism had long declared 1-Ispanjo/i (The Time of the Spaniards), its deep respect for folklore, oral and 1938, San Gwann (Saint John), 1939, and written traditions of the lower classes, and others. Other of minor creative the more primitive, or less urbanized, value which fall within the general outlines aspects of the people. The instinctive of this category are G. Vassallo's national family, as opposed to the Mannarino, 1888, C.A. Micallef's Sander tempered academic artificer, became the lnguanez, 1892, S. Frendo De Mannarino's truest poet. (This aesthetic dialectic T/_r:lniNJnh•con 'A.Arr/tiin fT'h.o f\.i.-.lt.oco.cr...... LP""'' '-"'"•••v• ..H ..c. .J;r..c.w'"'""J" \.I. J.J.\o- .l'f.I.Cl.l'-'-'"''-" assumed locally the nature of a parallelisn1 Baroness), 1893, and L. Vella's Bernard with the socio-cultural distinction between Dupu6, 1898, lsolda, 1902, Bint ii-Htikem Italian, the vehicle of the restricted elite, (The Hakem's Daughter), 1907, and Nikol and Maltese, the spontaneous means of G!iabdul, 1907-1908. ,expression of the less educated masses). These novelists' constant preference for Within this context this school of writers' protagonists chosen from within the zone insistent sublimation of the local patrimony of well-known national patriots is another the language, the popular traditions, the

55 physical beauty of the average young Horror and social inquiry countryman and countrywoman, the landscape - acquires an aesthetic, as well Horror, violence, the nocturnal and the as political, justification. spectral depiction of life were looked at by Alongside this group of democratically many romantics as excellent vehicles for oriented literary novelists, another the formation of a tragic image of human movement of popular writers, more existence. The romantic experience had a directly appealing to the less educated profound aptitude for terror, and category of society, was contributing in an consequently many novels, while analogous manner towards the fusion of maintaining throughout a light sprinkling the narrative pattern, socio-political of historical veracity, preferred the involvement and the newly-born awareness socialization, rather than the previous of the intrinsically creative value of folk idealistic nationalization, of an event. Such traditions. Although further to the an event normally centred around a extraliterary implications of the said sensational murder or an unhappy love Italian-Maltese dialectic, the distinction affair which ended up dramatically. between the literary historical novel and Spectres, ruthless villains, haunted houses, the popular historical one implies another ruined castles, deserted palaces, secluded class stratification within the restricted passages, superstitions, popular experiences spectrum of readers of Maltese (as opposed of the supernatural, gloomy settings and to those of Italian), the basis for their corpses are coordinated into one suggestive being distinct, or different, is, apart from whole which motivates awe and suspense. literary intentions, rather a question of The more important novelists of the Gothic varying emphasis on related aspects of the type, Arturo Mercieca [Carlo de Von people theme: the literary type stresses the Hove, jew il-kejrija tal-bojja Go/do (Carlo collective political and patriotic de Von Hove, or the cruelty of the involvement, whereas the popular type hangman Goldo), 1899, Inez jew bint dwells extensively on the socio-familiar 1-imglia//aq, grajja ta' Malta, kurjuza u tal­ condition, thus giving ample room for the biza' (Inez or the hanged man's daughter, consideration of non-political private and a tale of Malta, curious and macabre), public events, mainly unfortunate and 1901, Ix-Xebba ta' Wied Znuber (the maid tragic. Whilst the literary type subdues a of Znuber Valley), 1912, L-glierien tal­ central plot for the sake of an ideal katavri jew it-talf{ib Kalabriz (The cave of content, the popular one treats its own one the corpses or the beggar from Calabria), on a purely narrative level which is 1924], A.E. Borg [Lueija jew il-vittma tat­ exclusively concerned with arousing pathos tradiment (Lucia or the victim of betrayal), as a personal experience and not with 1907, Marija jew vendetta ta' baruni conducing the reader to conceive his (Maria or the baron's vengeance), 1908, acquired emotion as something he is Ama/ja mart /-assassin (Amalia the sharing in common with other fellow murderer's wife), 1910], G. Cumbo citizens and which he should dutifully [Katavru spjun - qalb ta' Venezjan (The translate into action. spying corpse - heart of a Venetian), 1 O'l.C::: 1 _irl frrLYMoiinf ;,,..., l_ihn'll'l fn:l ltA,..,.Mfn A.J..J..J' .I.J "'-"' •wr. llr.'-"JJfli....l- J'-"'". J.V .... If, "" J.YAVIr.r.(.... although not strictly literary, has an Cristo (The dead man's hand or the son of indirectly aesthetic touch inasmuch as its Monte Cristo), 1937] and numerous others thematic content is immediately derived had an enormous success and contributed from the romantic vision of life, whereas very much to the diffusion of both the the formal aspect is openly geared to the Maltese novel as such and the horror taste. less sophisticated tastes of the Analogously to this narrative production, majority. the tijatrin, or popular theatre, sought to

56 be melodramatic either through comedy or Venut, 1930), Guze Bonnici (/1-Qawwa ta' through tragedy. Far-fetched and highly 1-Imliabba), The Force of Love, 1938, complicated plots had to develop easily Helsien, Freedom, 1939), Wistin Born (Is­ into an uninterrupted series of exaggerated Salib tal-Fidda, The Silver Cross, 1939), features. Put together, and normally Guze Orlando (L-Ib/eh, The Simpleton, divided into three acts, these were intended 1948), Guze Chetcuti (Id-Dawl tal-Hajja, to motivate either laughter or horror. The Lamp of Life, 1958, Jmliabba u Mewt, Substantially it is only the same technique Love and Death, 1961, L-Jsqaq, The Alley, - melodramatic reconstruction - which 1962, It-Tnalja, The Plier, 1964, Nirien ta' explains both the basic nature and the Mliabba, Fires of Love,.1967) and Gorg popular success of the two apparently Zammit (Ix-Xhud li ma deherx, The distinct, or even opposite, genres. Witness who did not turn up, 1964) Apart from focusing attention, however assumed the role of critical observers of crudely, on socio-moral and environmental characters, of typical situations and characteristics, the horror story paved the environments, and applied their objective way for future writers and started to invite investigation towards creating a literature them to abandon the long worn-out meant to instigate social consciousness and national conception and to substitute it by inquiry into the problems of the lower a deeply felt preoccupation with the classes. Such a critique had to be conveyed immediate social hardships of a certain through a faithful analysis of spoken section of the population. Gradually the linguistic schemes. This is also what realist emphasis began to be shifted from the playwrights, such as Gino Muscat outer to the inner world, although no Azzopardi (b. 1899), Guze Diacono (b. novelist could ignore their reciprocal cause­ 1912) and Guze Chetcuti (b. 1914), sought effect relationship, thus admitting their to do in order. to put on stage a totally inalienable coexistence and then depicting faithful reproduction of what actually it in terms of a set of socially aware happened in daily life. The more important individuals who sum up in their aspects of familiar and social ethics, such personalities the condition of a commonly as love and hatred, sincerity and hypocrisy, poor community silently heading for a offered the widest range for their typical class war. thematic field, whereas characters, The earliest dialectic found in the environments, dictions and customs aimed Maltese novel's characterization, the at rendering in an almost documented foreigner and the native, developed itself manner the objective appearance of into a purely democratic one, the privileged sensory phenomena. The empirical world and the deprived, although doubtlessly of these writers, therefore, was necessarily there is no clear-cut distinction in this deprived of their own subjective direction between the historical and the consciousness and its depiction had to social novel. For instance, Caruana's !net reject any sort of sublime idealization. Farrtig had already pointed out basic social This socio-literary disposition provided a differences between the rulers and the new opportunity for Maltese to widen ruled, whilst Aquilina's Talit Tliet Saltniet considerably its lexical registers and (Under Three Reigns) had also suggested a syntactic patterns through a bare-faced reform of social structures alongside, or confrontation with a sector of society the better, as a prominent side-effect of, the literary transcription of which had hitherto political emancipation. been seriously forbidden. The extension of The reformist novelists, such as Guze both the thematic field and the stylistic Ellul Mercer (Leli ta' Haz-Zgliir, Leli of stock stressed all the more the principle Haz-Zghir, 1938), Gwann Mama (Ulied in­ that literature, and particularly the Nanna Venut, The Children of Grandma narrative genre, had to exist, flourish and

57 justify its development only insofar as it Xitan, The Cave of the Devil, 1973, Is­ depicted society in the light of its real Sejlia ta' /-Art, The Call of the Earth, problems. Man was no longer examined 1974), Lino Spiteri (Tad-Demm u 1-Laliam, and valued in virtue of his being a citizen, Of Flesh and Blood, 1968, Hala taz­ but in respect of his belonging to a Zgliozija,Wasted Youth, 1970), Frans particular province, a city or a village. Sammut (Labirint u Stejjer 0/ira, Instead of embracing the whole nation and Labyrinth and Other Stories, 1968, Il­ bringing forth all its space and time Gagga, The Cage, 1971 , Samuraj, dimensions, the new plot structure evolved Samurai, 1975) and Oliver Friggieri (11- within the restricted domains of a Gidba, The Lie, 1977, L-Istramb, The particular milieu. The present substituted Misfit, 1980) suggested a thorough the past and the former epic motive examination of society, conceived of as an transformed itself into a social inquiry irrevocably sorrowful confrontation based on class distinction, a new category between the individual and the collective within the earlier unspecified grouping of complex. At times the former reduces itself all citizens forming one ethnic family. to a microcosmic manifestation of the latter and occasionally the two become the The self and the outer region extreme poles of an irreconciliable in conflict dialectic. For the first time in Malta local novelists, as well as the poets, dared speak The young revolutionary writers of the out in unequivocal terms, pinpoint the sixties, united under the banner of the most serious maladies of their community Moviment Qawmien Letterar)u, the and indirectly suggest a diversification Movement for the Promotion of founded on integrity, the immediate Literature, founded in 1967, and consequence of the elimination of progressing apace with the new wave of sanctified hypocrisy which they believed to revival which invaded universities and detect in religion, society and family life. social structures alike in Europe and in Although scrupulously faithful to the America, proposed for themselves a radical literary rendering of factual truth (whence cross-examination of all the previous the gradual formation of a modern style), literature which may be summed up in a Lino Spiteri seeks the implied significance, twofold manifesto: (i) the critical the enigma which may underlie empirical revaluation of traditional works, aimed at experience and which may follow from a discarding all the thematic and formal sensible re-examination of the data in order components which led to sterile alienation to rediscover them according to the logic and to decadent imitation, and (ii) the of purified emotion, the writer's spiritual introduction of fresh contemporary condition, as opposed to the logic of motives and of a set of stylistic devices reason, the functioning of which constitutes which could enable their adequate the preliminary stage of this double expression. All human experiences became process. Heightening crude reality (the aesthetically valid in themselves, and result of a peaceful fusion of Christian languages started to be looked at simply as education and Socialist orientation) and a mental abstraction, potentially subject to all possible creative deviations (lexical, sensibility, Spiteri transforms the factual syntactic, semantic, etc.) and not as an into the possible, the stale and commonly already codified set of objective rules unnoticeable event into a uniquely demanding full adherance and unrepeatable experience. Through the unquestionable reproduction. subjective elaboration of observed New novelists like J .J. Camilleri (Aiina objectives, biography and reportage attain Sinjuri, We are rich, 1965, 11-Giiar tax- universality, and the particular, be it

58 personal or social, becomes predicable of presents an experiment in new structures all humans. This is why Lino Spiteri's and lexical adventures. His sentences, at short story, like J.J. Camilleri's novel, is times ironically rhetorical and at others often simultaneously explainable both sharp and provocative, are the eloquent through a Maltese and through an recollection of a disturbed ego persecuted anonymously human reiteration. It is not by a strange world which is at the same only the said new (or better reactionary, if time hauntingly real and vaguely symbolic, put in it.s true historical perspective) internal and objective. The lack of a awareness of society which accounts for definite distinction between the two such a choice, but also the rejection of frontiers as well as their continuous nationalism as an irrelevant myth (a major interaction transform description into theme and a psychological state already experience, the empirical into the exhausted in the previous decades) and the psychological, a process which is both preoccupation with the idea of man the stylistic and thematic. For instance, logical mind as opposed to man the citizen. congruity is frequently ignored when Spiteri's and other authors', such as J .J. grammar passes from the dialogue to the Camilleri's, could not possibly take an monologue and vice-versa. Secondly, exclusively literary, or formalistic, slant, Sammut's characters are normally the but had to be deeply rooted in, or humanized version of an environment or motivated by, a sense of dissatisfaction the ill-placed end-product of its antithesis, with the human, and then incidentally and therefore their external activity is Maltese, condition. On the other hand, always necessarily related to the internal Spiteri's , whilst striving to one, an aspect which is by far the most activate hidden potentialities, rules out all insistent throughout his narratives. the unwanted remnants of decorum, This interpretation may explain the simplifies commonly used structures and central role of splendid unsociability coins new ones, thus creating a fresh, bestowed on anti-heroes whose sole fluent diction. Remaining faithful to his problem is communicability but whose original background, Spiteri even employs fundamental redeeming feature is their own dialectisms, but his constant intention is to failure to come to terms with the outer alternate concisely detached descriptions world. Whilst all this is again directly and lyrical passages, and consequently to traceable back to its immediate origins (the produce a series of closely related vignettes Maltese social context), one is hardly which proclaim the disguised poetic justified in not seeing it as just a pretext character of an otherwise uninspiring for the exemplification of the human concrete situation. From the point of view situation itself. Sammut's individual, of a history of literary technique, Spiteri remotely resembling a combination of the may be said to be contributing to the now Dostoyevskyan sublime idiot and Camus' prevalent fusion of two different genres, sceptical social hermit, always betrays traits the poetic and the narrative, and to be of Maltesism used as prime matter for the giving evidence that their traditionally ultimate formation of a human type. In acclaimed distinction is here purely other words, he universalizes according to phcnomenological. An analysis of the two the dictates of a iocaiized version of man devices (description and lyricism), taken as such. separately and also as components of one The substantial confrontation between complete texture, is perhaps the best the epic of the traditional historical approach towards a definition of his style. novelist and the elegy of the modern one is Frans Sammut, still enamoured of a only too evident. Whereas the former literary speech which suggests the conscious strove to formulate a positive definition of choice of a convinced purist, similarly an idealized patria, the latter disclaims it

59 and renders it a sterile, or at least an came out with a new work. Consequently, unfortunate, anonymous territory where Ebejer finally achieved in drama what people are necessarily humans and only Anton Manwel Caruana had done with the incidentally citizens. It is, however, tl:ie novel in 1889 and what Dun Karm, the same patria in disguise and employed as national poet, started to do from 1912, the object of a critique which is the result when he dedicated himself to poetry in of a love-hate relationship very typical of Maltese. all modern Maltese literature. Oliver The implied discontent with previous v Friggieri's Fii-Parlament ma jikbrux Fjuri popular and pseudo-literary dramatic {In Parliament no Flowers grow), 1986 and efforts underlies Ebejer's radical Fil-gzira Taparsi jikbru 1-Fjuri (In the transformation an.d, on the other hand, island of Taparsi flowers grow), 1991, explains and amply justifies the categorical further emphasized and illustrated the negation proposed by Oreste Calleja sharp dualism. (b.1946), a playwright of significant Within this framework of a closely inventiveness, in 1972: "The deficiences of related genre one can appreciate better the Maltese theatre are innumerable. The historical significance of the central role Maltese theatre does not exist." played for the first time by drama. The Partly indebted to Ebejer's own real birth of a modern literary theatre in versatility in dramatic conception and Maltese goes back to the first appearance linguistic flexibility according to a variety of Francis Ebejer (1925-1993) in 1950. A of conditions, environments, characters bilingual writer, Ebejer strove hard and and thematic contents (all elements faced controversy and prejudice to manifesting the direct, almost obvious, introduce in local drama the modern idiom influence on him of Beckett, Ionesco, of a highly evocative technique which ably Pinter and others) Calleja is similarly related crude reality to a wide texture of engaged in depicting a highly allegorical, symbolism and suggestive relevance. The dramatically entertaining vision of a influence of European and American definite set of human dilemmas. Some of theatre is immediately detected, and it is all his situations are the most original in the absorbed and assimilated in terms of his whole of modern drama. His dramatis own personality in search of the personae, like those of the modern contemporary international spirit. Since his novelists and the young poets themselves, first Maltese radioplay, Cpar fix-Xemx are helplessly in search of a thorough (Fog in the Sun), 1950, he started to create personal fulfilment of which they are a nervous awareness of what stage reality fatally destined to remain deprived owing actually was. Insistently obsessed with the to certain socio-psychological phenomena conception of human experience as a which are always exerting their influence turbolent sequence of contrasts and on them. The problem of identification meaningful absurdities, he gradually went (already present in some of the more on to identify the inherently metaphorical, important prose and poetry works of the or better allegorical, nature of theatre as thirties) is at the core of this version of such. The nationwide success of his prize- being human and of being Maltese alike. It Vnann7i fnC'_f:nif urinnina·· ...... o Ynhnr~ ... -J .... , .....~nf"h __ ...... gc_ .... , -o-··"'"' ...... _, ....JJ ...... i~ _<>rtn<>llu ...... J rliffirnlt_ ...... _ ...... tn rli~tinoni~h_ ...... 0_ ...... , ...... hPhl!PPn..., ...... (Summer Holidays), 1962, Boulevard, the localized and the universally minded 1964, Menz, 1966, immediately brought critique since the two borders normally about an authentically literary approach to overlap. The characters of both Ebejer and drama. People, especially those who Calleja are ultimately a subtle fusion of usually refrained from attending a stage environmental and cosmopolitan features. representation in Maltese, flocked to the Ebejer's second phase, which may be island's national theatre every time Ebejer said to have started with his /1-Hadd juq

60 ii-Bejt (Sunday on the Roof), 1971, is truest poet, a basic principle which fundamentally Maltese, in the sense that it determined the real character of romantic transforms a series of typically localized art, is the primary motive of the revival of versions of human experience into a quasi­ Maltese as a means of literary, and ludicrous national self-portrait. Its basic especially versified, expression. The structure is perhaps derived from the European movement, largely inspired and island's popular theatrical tradition, mostly determined by the democratic spirit of typified in the form of thejarsa. The great liberal thinkers, may be said to have inevitable love-hate complex which modern revolved around Herder's fundamental Maltese writers manifest in treating distinction between.Kunstpoesie (poetry of environmental conceptions is present to the art) and Naturpoesie (poetry of nature). extent that it gives room to a plot, Latin romanticism subsequently started to drastically reduced in terms of its adopt this dialectic as its creed and to see traditional component parts, which is in the first component the poetry of the superficially comic or satirical and basically traditional and outdated past, and in the elegaic, deeply rooted in a hidden stratum second one the authentically inspired of personal delusion. Essentially, it is a expression of a new emerging generation feeling shared by all writers of this period. endowed with the right to translate its own (b.1948) is significant for his genuinely primitive feelings into poetry novel L-Ewwel Weraq tal-Bajtar (The. first which was necessarily uncultivated, Palms of the Prickly Pears), 1968, and for spontaneous and instinctive in form and his plays, particularly Fid-Dell tal-Kattidral content. (In the Shadow of the Cathedral), 1977. This dualistic conception of poetry, and Deeply conscious of the function of every of art in general, amounted to the word in his text, Sant manipulates distinction between classicism, now looked language in a manner which reveals both a at as an elitist and socially barren culture, tense psychology and an uncodified and romanticism, a movement fully aware approach to grammatical equilibrium. of contemporary political and social Departing from a substantially negative features and problems which the modern appraisal of life, he portrays a delicately artist had to interpret according to the ironical image of either Maltese ways of dictates of a whole native milieu. Whereas life or of unqualified human conditions. At in the major European (such as times his narrative tends to resolve itself the Italian, in which the heredity of the into a series of vignettes which may betray Renaissance was still alive) this new his strange love for familiar and social conception sought to assume an anti­ structures he actually wants to discredit. At classical identity, in the case of a small times, however, poetry is allowed to island like Malta, where the traditional feature prominently, and somehow of the Maltese proved to paradoxically, even in objectively be the concern of a numerically restricted uninspiring situations. This tendency to and socially privileged class, it did not only transform drama into poetry is also the imply a radical reaction against a worn-out most typical feature of the plays of Doreen aesthetic vision but also a hitherto Micailef (b. i949). unprecedented formation of a national awareness which inevitabiy had to be both political and linguistic. Poetry Gan An ton Vassallo' s A cultural dualism triple contribution

The aesthetic myth of the people as the Gan Anton Vassallo (1817-1868) is the

61 first important poetic personality to effect aspect of romantfcism flourished the earliest traces of development in the enormously in the island and may be said said direction. Being fully equipped with to be one of the major means by which the an Italian academic education, he soon· native idiom acquired a nationwide started to participate in the new aesthetic justification for its popular-literary vision and to form a poetics totally cultivation. oriented towards democratic experience. But the poet's focal conception of man The people were to inspire the poet and to is essentially nationalistic. It is man the suggest to him the lexical, structural and citizen, as opposed to man the disillusioned thematic components. lover or man the social animal, that Vassallo's contribution has a triple determines to the greatest extent the character. He introduced into Maltese the character of his poetic vision. The heroic pathetic or sentimental attitude which past is brought back to life through a represents man as an emotional creature in dramatic re-elaboration which puts people, search of self-attainment through love. The events and environments on an equal dialogue with nature which surrounds footing and which looks at history as an human sensibility is transformed into the uninterruptedly evolving present, thus intimate document of man's psychological suggesting that the idealized patria of the journey. Alongside this subject-object romantics is potentially on the verge of relationship the poet presents a fresh being actualized in definite political terms. awareness of the troubled soul as the Through such an elimination of any mental central unit within the texture of all human barrier between· past and future, the new experiences. The second component of image of the nation is put to life in a Vassallo's poetry is satirical. Man is not manner analogous to that of the all-seeing only conceived of as a victim of superior prophet. forces which are continuously exerting their This three-fold character of Vassallo's influence on his sensibility - thus contribution to Maltese poetry marks the motivating a type of poetry which is initial phase of a relatively long period thematically negative and pessimistic and conducted on the same lines by the future stylistically delicate, melodious and poets. Minor authors like Ludovico Mifsud rhetorically direct - but also ;;ts an active Tommasi (1795-1879), Richard Taylor protagonist of a social environment. His (1818-1868), Guze Muscat Azzopardi romantic fables seek to caricature a set of (1853-1927), Anton Muscat Fenech public aspects and to render stale (1854-1910), Dwardu Cachia (1858-1907), folkloristic material a spectacular Manwel Dimech (1860-1921) and others panorama of what actually underlies the continued to develop further the truest identity of a humble class-ridden democratic orientation of poetry and to society. Animal psychology, class widen their sources of inspiration through conscience, personified sensitive, animate a better understanding of social structures and inanimate entities, dramatized and a more flexible manipulation of traditions, dictions and situations of popular diction according to a set of particular sectors of society are fused into literary criteria. The romantic axiom that nnPtn.r le !l r1Pnru:!1tnn.r nf n!litlnn!ll trnth one \vhcle in order to create a colourfully .t"'"'""'"".&.J ...... - - .... y ...... J ...., ...... _ ...... _ ...... _ ...... critical interpretation of contemporary life. explains what actually happened on the Vassallo was actually trying to do in poetic level. On the other· hand, the school Malta what Fiacchi, Perego, Gozzi, Casti, of Maltese poets writing in Italian sought Passeroni, Batacchi, Pignotti and many to drive home this vision of man and the others were doing in Italy. Thematically country. But since now it was only popular and structurally, his fables are an integral sensibility which could inspire works of art part of the movement. This pedagogical - a basic truth insistently proclaimed and

62 Peter Caxaro's "Cantilena,, a 15th century poem in Maltese

63 DunKarm

GanAnton Vassallo TemiZammit

64 GwannMamo Ruzar Briffa

Karmenu Vassallo Francis Ebejer

65 diffused in Malta through the island's 1889, and from his Vocabolario de/la participation in Italy's romantic experience, Lingua Maltese, 1903, and by Annibale and particularly through the vast local Preca (1830-1901), who strove to give an activity of the Italian exiled rebels all-embracing Semitic origin to common (1804-c.l860) - and since Maltese was words of Romance derivation, particularly rapidly assuming a central role which was to place-names and surnames, in his Malta ultimately destined to substitute, at least Cananea, 1904 - was later on succeeded by partly, the traditional cultural role of a group of liberal thinkers who faithfully Italian, this group of writers found reiterated the linguistic democratism of the themselves faced with a decisive dilemma. Italian romantics. Napuljun Tagliaferro, They had either to come to grips with the Ninu Cremona, Dun Karm and G. new situation (that is, through resorting to Aquilina were openly in favour of a the handling of Maltese as their artistic natural fusion of Semitic and Romance medium and through reaching a words which ultimately reflected both the compromise with the immediate aspirations truest image of popular spirit and a and the real educational standards of the synchronized version of the spoken majority), or to isolate themselves language. considerably from the mainstream and to Consequently, many of the romantically reduce themselves to a consciously isolated oriented poets of the early twentieth socio-literary cast. century (like G. Muscat Azzopardi, A. Maltese became an official language in Cuschieri, N. Cremona, Dun Karm) soon 1934. Although the language question found that the new challenge, being both emphasized the basic distinction between political and aesthetic, could not be Italian (as a living evidence of a rich Latin adequately faced if not through their patrimony) and Maltese (as a then so-called translating (and partly modifying) their unworthy Semitic dialect which served as a own 'Italian' romantic conscience into mere vehicle of popular communication), Maltese. Others, however, failed to accept for the literary historian it is still more the intrinsic value of the popular idiom important insofar as it motivated a further and continued to write romantic poetry distinction within the Maltese language which, paradoxically enough, could not literary movement itself. Some writers reach any more its basic aim, that is, sought to purify the written idiom from all popular communication. The implied non-Semitic derivatives (an attitude aesthetic contradiction is indirectly present analogous in various ways to the Italian in certain Maltese poems which proclaim purist movement, led by Antonio Cesari the myth of a national language. and others, which during the Napoleonic The contemporaneity of the two schools, era tried to restore the modern language though linguistically much different and according to the Italian of the "aureo socially opposed, may appear, at first Trecento"). Others, however, believed that sight, to be analogous to the thematic and an effective democratization of literature in formal distinction between the old Maltese could not be adequately carried literature still written according to the out without using lexical and structural Latin tradition and the new literature patterns which, although carefully and written according to some Semitic intelligently selected, were also totally philosophy and technical apparatus. faithful to the actual choices of the Maltese was looked at, up to a few decades contemporary population. The purist ago, as a mere corrupt Arabic dialect, the movement - represented mainly by A.M. 'poverty' of which was further proved by Caruana (1838-1907), who sought to its lexical assimilations from Sicilian and eliminate as much as possible non-Semitic Italian. Since the Maltese community had, loan words from his novel Inez Farrug, and still has, a Catholic orientation, and

66 since the local writers who either respectability and to be identified with abandoned Italian to start experimenting culture, apart from folklore, popular with Maltese or initiated their creative comedy and religious ritual. This was the activity through Maltese were not in any challenge which expected and needed a way alien to the Italian tradition, they were master of both languages, gifted also with repeatedly reminded of their being 'educati a sublime poetic character, since the poetic italianamente'. One can only speak, genre was actually the most popular and therefore, of a harmonious fusion of the ideally the most suitable to involve the older and the new tradition, a historically majority in this socio-cultural encounter. organic continuation Of one complete Such a poet could not possibly be one who process. The modern usage of the native was outside the only group of dedicated language instead of the more respectable Maltese authors, that is, those who one and the consequent democratization of cultivated the Italian tradition and sought literature are only new bearings within the to develop it locally. The situation is same linear development. commonly labelled as linguistic but in In spite of the well known fact that reality was deeply rooted in social and Latin romanticism amply exploited various ideological substrata. It only lacked the extra-European sources of inspiration, and presence of a unifying spirit who also notwithstanding the basic Semitic character happened to be a resourceful author who of Maltese, Vassallo insisted that local had already let European, and especially writers were duty bound to interpret and the Italian risorgimental, romanticism exert sublimate the real identity of the country. far-reaching influences on his identity to In practical terms this meant that, as it make him take the irrevocable decision of subsequently proved to be, they were only giving both Italian and Maltese their expected to insert themselves within the respective due in terms of time-space wider current of the Latin tradition and to conditions which are always changing. In find the adequate channels through which fact Dun Karm (1871-1961) was endowed they could adopt a linguistic medium of with a deep sense of historicism and could Semitic origin according to a set of non­ easily accept the challenge in its entirety, Semitic formal and thematic components but only 'failed' to see any incompatibility which were part and parcel of the island's between the two linguistic media on the cultural orientation. When one bears in creative level. mind that Vassallo was fully aware of the Since he wrote exclusively in Italian up need of diffusing the popular language and to 1912 (his first poem goes back to 1889), of creating a poetic corpus which faithfully when he started to write in Maltese he did reflected the community's innermost not undergo a substantial or radical experiences, one can only conclude that in change, but retaining the formal and this way he was advocating the organic ideological features he had already fusion of a Semitic language and a Latin developed in his first literary phase, he spirituality which henceforth was destined passed on to assert the same dignity in to prevail in all future literary works: regard of the native language. The fact "Sacrijicheremo pure vanita jilologiche e interessi that this event of major importance in the maggiori, a piu alto fine; jacciam o~ni sforzo per litPr~r\1 jO'\/nlnt1nn n.f 1\/JQlta.C"a ,.1;,..1 T\nt tnl,.o...... ~- .... -'"'J -,. ..., ... _.,...__ ... .., '-'.I. .L'I'..LI4A'-"O'"" U.lU J.J.V\. LUA'\..o ispingerci verso l'occidente nonostante l'orientalismo the form of a total re-examination but just del/a nostra lingua. AII'Oriente, bellissimo ne/le pagine di Chateaubriand e Lamartine, diamo so/tanto of a healthy fusion of past and present is un saluto poetico; sien essi pero i nostri sguardi, i further evinced by the other equally nostri sospiri, per l'occidente". significant fact that Dun Karm went on to write occasionally in Italian even after the Dun Karm: nationalism and solitude year of his linguistic 'conversion' (1912). Maltese only needed then to assume this Dun Karm succeeds in sublimating for

67 the first time the vision of a glorious ego-id relationship which is both physical nation and transforms its long history into and spiritual. The landscape, previously a lyrical epic full of heroes and spectacular transformed into a figurative version of the events. Through the dramatic reincarnation island's differentiating factors which form of such patriots like Dun Mikiel Xerri, and justify its national definition, is now Vassalli and La Valette, and through the spiritualized according to one's own depiction of a varied series of folkloristic internal universe and reduced to an vignettes, he unifies in one complete whole objectivized projection of a disturbed the always relevant glories of the past and human psychology. Even if christianized the verifiable merits of contemporary life. and ethically restrained, the Sehnsucht A group of national figures, romantically motive, the urge for the nostalgically conceived of as the fathers of the country exotic, is typical of Dun Karm's real (a direct participation in a central motive individuality. of Italian nineteenth century inspiration, particularly elaborated and diffused by Poetry as a lyric Foscolo, with whom Dun Karm takes part in an ideal but intimately passionate The thematic field of subsequent dialogue, and whose I Sepolcri he romantic poets was destined to evolve translated into superb Maltese), and an within analogous limits. This was partly anonymous multitude of faithful citizens due to Dun Karm's literary influence on form one ethnic entity distinctly his contemporaries as well as to a sort of a characterized by its religious chorality in collective participation in one general deeds and intentions. The Mazzinian experience, aesthetically romantic and emblem of 'God and the People' as well as historically Maltese, which was bound to the thinker's doctrine of one's right to make itself evident in terms of a common have a homeland and consequently one's trend, a courant commun, to use Van duty to construct it assume an essential Tieghem's comparative language. Although importance in the poetry of Dun Karm substantially and .stylistically very distinct (and then of his numerous followers). from one another, Ruzar Briffa Metaphors, similies, rhetorical devices, (1906-1963), Gorg Zammit (1908-1990), poetic forms, emotional adjectivizations (1912-1983) and Karmenu and other lexical choices easily define this Vassallo (1913-1987) gradually eliminate poetic corpus as significantly risorgimental the remnants of patriotic inspiration and according to the Italian models which are adopt a thoroughly subjective, inward­ here revisited and experienced by a mature looking attitude. Instead of socio-political spirit and reorganized according to the preoccupations, their lyricism at its best needs and suggestions of an immediate presents a second stage of the main historical situation. romantic evolution, an intensified The subject-object dilemma of the investigation of man as a passionate victim romantic conscience is also actively present of his sensations as well as of the supreme in Dun Karm. In complete contrast with forces of nature with which (or better, with the nationalistic, outward-looking whom, since the world of empirical data is rnmnnnPnt_ ...... ¥ ...... _ ...... nf hi~ .t-'nnPtif"' ..... _...... _ .t'_.nPr'-'!nn~ ...... _...... _ ...... litv J' thPrP...... _ .. - always personified and frequently is the equally important aspect of his transformed into an ethereal, omnipresent solitude, a main motive which is insistently feminine figure) they can develop a expressed in poems which evoke the fatally psychological relationship. Since this is remote figure of his mother and which their particular way of passing from depict a loving nostalgia for the monologue to dialogue, from isolation to countryside where the poet's sensibility extrapersonal commitment, the focal revives the past and seeks to indulge in an character of their poetry is self-

68 confessional, at times overtly diaristic. romantic controversy conducted by a new Ruzar Briffa imposes upon his own crop of young poets, like Charles Coleiro sensibility a set of time-space limits which (b. 1935), Victor Fenech (b. 1935), Achille transcend their original sensory data Mizzi (b. 1936), Daniel Massa (b. 1937), insofar as they convey the imaginative Mario Azzopardi (b. 1944), Philip sublimation of a suffering soul. Gorg Sciberras (b. 1945), Oliver Friggieri (b. Zammit seeks the mysteriously religious 1947), Albert Marshall (b. 1947) and significance of creatures and objects with others. Alongside the mainstream of the which he is hauntingly surrounded and sees young generation, however, Anton in empirical data a mystic manifestation of Buttigieg contributed and is still infinity which is both external and contributing to a sort of formal spiritual. Anton Buttigieg omits the ideal­ compromise between the older and the real dichotomy by depicting reality (which modern type. is largely vegetative and sensitive) The modern period is characterized by according to an ideally antropomorphicized the radical contestation of the thematic conception. His seemingly descriptive content (predominantly patriotic, poetry, richly suggestive and allusive, is traditionally religious and ecclesiastical, only a sublimated projection of his own nocturnal, introvert and emotional) of the internal universe. previous literary school which, as happens Karmenu Vassallo, whose first poetic to all movements which prolong their phase (1932-1944) is basically determined existence too much, started to bear by Leopardi's poetics of socio-psychological evidence of decadence and extinction in the exclusion on the one hand, and poetry of uninspiring work of numerous minor negation, as evinced by his central lexical poets. The new version of the cerebralists, choices and syntactic patterns, on the regarding both literature (and particularly other, has a contrasting identity: he is the verse form) and Maltese society (which perhaps the only Maltese poet ever to had long started to modify its identity and reveal a subtle affinity with the Sturm und to experience different modes of thinking Drang state of soul (a directly Italian, and and behaving), goes back to the sixties of indirectly German, assimilation), but he this century when the new national also ends up by denying humanity in awareness naturally ought to have given general, and poets in particular, the rise to more complex attitudes in the possibility of ever creating illusions. This creative field. anti-Kantian negation is evidently traceable In 1949 Guze Aquilina had already back to both philosophical and literary pointed out the need of a thorough spirits of modern Europe. regeneration of Maltese poetry. He suggested that poets had to give due The modern movement: controversy, importance to technical, especially reconstruction and detachment metrical, experimentation and to the exploration of a new self, much more The uninterrupted repetition of these and creatively subjective according to the trends other romantic motives, as well as the of modern knowledge and experience. He also implied that such a renewal was related formal components, by a group of necessarily destined to introduce new minor poets whose literary activity syntactic structures in the language which coincides chronologically with that of the the traditionalists had only handled in an said major ones (a span of time ranging almost anonymously uniform manner and approximately from the thirties up to the in accordance with the old norms of .sixties of this century) is the immediate grammatical equilibrium and academic cause which necessitated the recent anti- decorum. However, it was only an article

69 published by the present writer in 1966 Fenech, D. Massa, C. Vella; Dliahenfi­ which finally put forward the quest for a Imliuh (Smoke in the Minds), 1967, by G. radical modernization of literature, and Borg, 0. Friggieri, A. Marshall; L-Gnar particularly of poetry. Discussion soon ta, 1-Enimmi (The Cave of Enigmas), 1967, started to gain momentum, mainly owing by A. Mizzi; Pritmi (Prisms), 1968, by L. to the participation of other budding poets Cachia and Ph. Sciberras; Antenni and prose writers, like Mario Azzopardi, (Antennae), 1968, by M. Azzopardi, J .J. Albert Marshall, Raymond Mahoney, Camilleri, V. Fenech, R. Mahoney; Analiti Philip Sciberras, Achille Mizzi, J oe A. ,70 (Analysis '70), 1970, by M. Azzopardi, Grima, Charles Casha, Alfred Degabriele. V. Fenech, 0. Friggieri, D. Massa; Mas­ The other points of reference were various Sejlia tat-Tnabar (The Call of the Drums), major modern writers, such as Thomas 1971, by M. Azzopardi, 0. Friggieri, A. Mann, Ernest Hemingway, Evelyn Waugh Mizzi; and Dwal fii-Persjani (Light in the and Graham Greene about whom Peter Blinds), 1972, by M. Azzopardi, J .. Serracino lnglott, himself a poet and a Friggieri, 0. Friggieri, R. Mahoney, Ph. critic as well as philosopher, wrote a series Sciberras are the main documents of a of articles on 11-Haddiem during the period radically new approach both to literary 1966-1967. Modern foreign poets, like values and to human behaviour alike. Vladimir Mayakovsky, Yevgeny The idea of publishing shared anthologies Yevtushenko, Salvatore Quasimodo, Petr is to the credit of Victor Fenech, who Bezruc, Dylan Thomas and Pedro Salinas edited Kwartett (Quartet) in 1965. Three started to be translated into Maltese by the Maltese poets, J oseph Abela, Manwel local poets themselves. Cassar and John Sciberras, had already The, critical appraisals of the members of produced Tlitt lq/ub (Three Hearts) in this reformist group repeatedly referred to 1953, but it remained an isolated case. what the major international exponents of Fenech got the idea in 1965 on seeing some modern poetry - like Pound, Eliot, Northern House poetry pamphlets, · Apollinaire, Mallarme, E.E. Cummings, published in sets of four authors, and he Ungaretti, Claudel, Valery, Alain Robbe­ thought the scheme could be adopted Grillet - had already declared and adhere locally with some modifications. In 1962 to. Penguin Books had already launched their In 1946 Aquilina's second edition of his "Penguin Modern Poets" series, featuring anthology 11-Muta Maltija (The Maltese some thirty poems by each of three modern Muse) featured Wallace Gulia (b. 1926), poets in a single volume. The idea gathered Marjanu Vella (1927-1988) and Charles momentum in the literary life of the island Coleiro, all of whom gave evidence of and a whole spate of shared anthologies being preoccupied with a set of modern soon appeared in the market. Running themes and of being fully conscious of the parallel to these were the more traditionally need of experimenting with new poetic Maltese 'collective anthologies', involving forms and syntactic structures, as well as single works by a large number of writers. of giving a cerebral flavour to their In recent years the trend has slowed down metaphors. considerably. During the period 1966-1972 a number The titles of these shared anthologies are of shared anthologies of modern verse were in themselves a clear indication of a widely covered and discussed in the leading substantially untraditional way of creating newspapers and gradually motivated a metaphors. Whilst former book titles had public debate which ultimately assumed a an exclusively sentimental touch (e.g. social, political and religious character, Weraq mar-Rili, Leaves in the wind, 1932, beside its basic literary one. Kwartett by N. Cremona; Dell ta, l-1mglioddi, (Quartet), 1965, by J.J. Camilleri, V. Shadow of the past, 1936, by T. Vassallo;

70 Fanali bil-Lejl, Nocturnal Lamps, 1949, by intelligent examination of their innermost A. Buttigieg; /1-Wa/tz tad-Dellijiet, The self shows a deep dissatisfaction with Waltz of the Shadows, 1949, by G. Pisani; themselves and with the outer region which Fuq Gwiena!i ii-G!iana, On the Wings of surrounds them. At times the subject­ Song, 1964, by G. Zammit), the modern object rapport betrays the presence of an ones prefer to select their imagery from the existentialist attitude (Sartre, Camus, immediate world of urban, industrialized Ionesco and Brecht as well feature in their experience (e.g. Antenni, Antennae), or to manifestos) and consequently the inherent reveal the detached frustration of a distressed frustration ends up with transforming the psyche (e.g. Dna!ienfl-Imliuli, Smoke in the apparently indomitable protagonist into a Minds; L-G!iar ta' 1-Enimmi, The Cave of sceptically hostile victim of superior forces. Enigmas). Such a deliberate substitution of The best instances of this psychic dialectic emotional metaphors by a set of others are provided by Victor Fenech, Philip which are rather cerebral, mathematically Sciberras, Mario Azzopardi, Carmel Attard precise, logically coherent but apparently too and Doreen Micallef. From the point of densely inter-related to be easily view of poetic technique, this incapability comprehensible, is one of the most consistent of coming to terms with the world of features of the new poems themselves. This sensory experience results in metaphorical proves further that the modern poetic density. Symbols seem to breed and over­ experience is necessarily transferred from the populate the poem without leaving any warm abode of the heart, as the so-called marginal space for literal or rhetorical seat of passions, to the labyrinth of the intervals. Pure poetry proved to be mind, now considered as a paradoxically difficult for the average reader and for delicate, fragile machine which cannot some of the traditionalists as well. actually insert itself adequately within the As social animals these poets only predetermined confines of an objective, develop a love-hate relationship with their impersonal complex. environment. This dualism is also The romantics had repeatedly sought to characteristic of some modern Maltese sublimate the conception of poetry as the novels and short story collections such as intimate revelation of the heart and had Alfred Sant's L-Ewwel Weraq tal-Bajtar equated their own work with an aesthetic (The first Palms of the Prickly Pears), reconstruction of autobiographical data. The 1968, Frans Sammut's /1-Gagga (The following book titles are just a few typical Cage), 1971, and Samuraj (Samurai), 1975, examples of this fundamental orientation: and Oliver Friggieri's 11-Gidba (The Lie), Kwiekeb ta' Qalbi (Stars of my Heart), 1944, 1977, Fil-Parlament ma jikbrux Fjuri (In by K. Vassallo; Mo!iba tal-Qalb (The Heart's Parliament no Flowers grow), 1986, and Secret Path), 1945, by F. Camilleri; Mi/1- Fil-g:t.ira Taparsi jikbru 1-fjuri (In the Mi/ja ta' Qalbi (From the abundance of my island Taparsi flowers grow), 1991. Heart), 1956, by V. Ungaro; Tlitt lqlub Protest, the elimination of traditional (Three Heart§), 1953, by J. Abela, M. Cassar taboos and the negation of rigid socio­ and J. Sciberras; M eta to!ilom i/-Qalb (When religious rituals, the search for a different the Heart dreams), 1%2, by G. Delia. On identification of a true individual and th~ nthe:tor hqnrl ":llthnllll"'rh rh..,.T'loC" £"'1n.lo;rn. ;C" O..I..L"" '-'"'"'&""'.I. &'"""..l.,l\.t.' '-1..1.'-.I.A'-'Uf;.l..l...... _,.lJ.(A..I..I.'-'13 '-'V.I.\,.I.I..I.V .l.:> one of the first protagonists of the modern were conveyed through a range of poetic movement, the title of his, book, Mirja ta' forms which amply reflected the extralit­ Qalbi (Mirrors of my Heart), 1964, indicates erary involvement of the group and the his reluctance to part irrevocably with fresh cultural orientation of the younger tradition. generation. Polyphonic prose, projective Notwithstanding the impression of verse, the recit, cut-out and concrete poetry optimism which these poets suggest, an and other unconventional techniques,

71 generally of an English or an American quote Dylan Thomas, "a person of words" modern origin, aimed at provoking a but "a person of words in action," and the critical confrontation between the authors poem was gradually becoming "an event, a and the widest possible range of readers happening, an action perhaps, not a still­ and at providing poetry with an authentic life or an experience put down, placed, justification for its existence and then for . regulated." Such activities were obviously its diffusion among people from all walks intended to substitute the previous ghetto­ of life. like gatherings of traditional literary Thematically, this attitude implied that societies. ail human experiences are inherently Whereas the sixties form a short, adequate to be considered as prime matter turbulent period of experimentation, public for poetic transformation and sublimation, debate and controversy, the seventies and whilst from a purely formalistic point of the eighties are actually the period when view it evidently proclaimed the belief that literary equilibrium was finally reached. all aprioristic literary codes had to be done The best examples of modern Maltese verse away with. Consequently, the definition of illustrate the general conclusion that the a poem in terms of its genre became only modern trends, modified and adapted to an a posteriori conclusion. Practically this the conditions of the Maltese temperament, amounted to the conscious elimination of had to be channeled through a path where generic distinctions and of the traditionally the inquisitive self and the environment of supreme recognition granted to the an ancient, solitary island form one unique adherance to a prescribed set of stylistic whole. A brief account of the contributions precepts. of the more important contemporary poets The Moviment Qawmien Letterarju, may suffice to justify these assertions. informally set up in November 1966 and Mario Azzopardi, perhaps the angriest officially founded in January 1967, was among the poets who made their presence meant to organize this whole process of felt in the late sixties, is himself a literary revival and to fuse all innovations prominent exponent of the new current. in one concerted effort. Writing was His fine lyrical vein is an indication, albeit intended to be translated into experience paradoxical, of inner tranquillity, since the which had to go far beyond the restricted real world is now the one within the self. boundaries of normal literary routine. The The rebel has adopted the behaviour of a title of the movement's magazine itself, 11- mystic constantly in search of ultimate Polz (The Pulse), launched in July 1967, truths. The objective world is now immediately indicated that these poets and interiorized and symbols, equally original writers were detecting an intimate and disturbing, form the suggestive relationship among rhythm, pulse, beat language of an inward-looking pilgrim and jazz music. (It is impossible to isolate talking only to himself. On the other hand, this mentality from that of the Beat Achille Mizzi is highly sensuous and Generation poets of the fifties and the evocative, densely allusive and at times sixties, such as Jack Kerouac, Alien really obscure. He only knows the mood of Ginsberg and Gregory Corso). As a matter a grave thinker perceiving the essence of of fact, their radio literary programme was existence through subtle images. His called Beat and Literature, whilst they soon metaphors are frequently passionate but embarked on a series of public recitals of are intelligently formed as an effort to poetry and pop music. Night clubs, hotels, reconcile what is empirical with what is streets and squares were the new venue for psychological. His poems at times suggest a experiencing literature conceived of as a sort of relationship between human life happening rather than as just a written and scientific technique. Eternity and work. The poet was not to be any more, to history constitute a world of sharp

72 confrontation. The self is at times lost but from the registers of sentiment and individuality is a sense animating all his intimacy, and dwell on the potentiality of works. poetry as a means towards self­ Doreen Micallef' s main concern is the identification. Their world is universal, transformation of verse into a monologue rarely national, even if social relevance conducted along different levels of creeps in at intervals. awareness. This psychological condition is From an exclusively literary point of largely reflected in the syntactic patterns view, the reaction of the young poets was and the lexical choices she adopts in all her systematically directed against the typical poems. Daniel Massa has contributed components of some of the previous considerably to the renewal of Maltese models: stereotyped phraseology, the verse especially in the field of purely emotional metaphorical nucleus, symbolization, the choice of vocabulary, strict metrical formality, syntactic patterns the formation of new rhythms, and the which appeared to be obstinately distinct widening of the thematic content. His from traditionally unknown syntagmatic, poetry is highly allusive and gives paradigmatic, graphological, grammatical significance even to the minutest detail. and lexical deviations. Consequently, Carmel Attard is essentially a lyric poet openly declaring the absolute need of a revisiting the past with the specific radical renewal of forms and contents, intention of renewing schemes and these poets started to give great attention metaphors and of eliminating the rather to English and American poetry. Among abrupt distinction between tradition and other things, the traditional sharp modernism. Nostalgia and subtle irony are distinction between prose and poetry began fully made use of in order to create an to be considered as simply mental and environment that is equally intimate and phenomenological, and in no way indifferent. substantial. Following Olson's dictum that Phi:ip Sciberras is deceptively descriptive the artist should escape towards, and not and constantly philosophical. His deep from, reality, and anxious to formulate a sense of futility, at times utterly different poetic register, much more pessimistic, is combined with a profound flexible and immediate, Victor Fenech and faith in the innermost intuitions · some others gradually eliminated the experienced by man when subjected to a dichotomy. They did this mainly through thorough psychospiritual divestment. Social the adoption of an utterly unpredictable relevance is only of secondary importance anti-poetic diction, in which Wallace to him, although some of his better works Stevens had already recognized "that truth, are effective owing to their dependence on that reality to which all of us are forever known events. Oliver Friggieri transforms fleeing," but, needless to say, the process his own experience into a paradigm of is much more complex and aims at a universal suffering and insists on the fusion of both genres. relationship between love and death, God This attitude, which is both literary and history. Man's inability to (since it concerns a taste and a choice communicate and to come to terms with regarding the written medium) and existential and social dilemmas is psychological (since it involves a new eventually explained as the real essence of conception of what is humanly poetic or the human condition. Emotional content immediately translatable into poetry) has and philosophical principles constitute the recently resulted in a harmonious fusion in major sources of his inspiration. Fenech's prose poems. In virtue of his Other poets like Albert Marshall, J oe latest creations Feneeh has not only found Friggieri and Gorg Borg still maintain a the ultimate equilibrium towards which his highly lyrical note, choose their vocabulary poetry has been constantly heading since

73 the earliest published experiments in the unanimously engaged in portraying man in sixties, but has also inserted Maltese poetry his eternal, absolute dimension. The within the mainstream of international prose romantics had succeeded in discovering the poetry production. Since the publication of national self, and their basic intuition Oscar Wilde's Poems in prose in the regarded man as a citizen, an inhabitant of a Forthnightly Review of July 1894, historically rich island. Alongside this experimentation in this direction led to a conception the earlier writers themselves highly creative synthesis of the narrative insisted on individuality as the prerogative of structure and the distinctive features of man as a human being and not simply of metaphorical composition. The works of man as a mere member of a tiny community. Solzhenitsyn, who almost identified this Identity, both collective and personal, human genre with a recreated version of the and national, was seen in itself as the real traditional allegorical fables, and those of an essence of existence; national pride and impressive number of French poets, such as personal distinctiveness are basically the Rene de Obaldia, Pierre Bettencourt, Henri complex offshoots of the same historical Pichette, Marcel Bealu, Andre Hardellet and achievement. As this consciousness reached Julien Gracq, have provided the Maltese maturity and was fully developed on the writer with a reliable point of reference creative level, it seemed that the time was which admits a wide range of minor ripe for a profounder revision of such an variations within the spectrum of its own attainment. The exploration of the most basic definition. As a matter of fact Gorg diverse literary forms emanates from a deep Borg's Stejjer minn tarj ir-Ral'ial (Tales from urge to use all given means to attain self­ the Village outskirt), 1977, claim to be poems fulfillment. in prose and are intimately related to Wilde's On the political plane Malta moved poetic fables in terms of narration and consistently ahead and made considerable allegory, but are also different owing to the strides in its efforts to be inserted in the inclusion or exclusion of other aspects. (On contemporary outside world. Social and the other hand, the prose of the major economic advancements brought about a romantic poets, such as Dun Karm, Anton different view of life and a set of new Buttigieg, Gorg Zamrnit and Karmenu demands. The intercourse with foreign Vassallo has always maintained a poetic countries increased and international criteria spirit throughout, even if these writers were had to be kept in mind as a constant point not aware of any literary fusion of the two of reference. In trying to come to grips with genres which up to a few years ago were this intriguing challenge writers know they considered as mutually exclusive). have to face it both as keen observers of Being almost nervously conscious of their their immediate milieu and as foreign contemporary colleagues - the most interpreters of existence itself. The national important ones being T.S. Eliot, Ezra and the universal levels at times overlap and Pound, G.M. Hopkins, the Liverpool poets, are definitely engaged in a continuous the English social poets of the thirties and relationship. The principle of individuation, others - the protagonists of this group sought after, discovered and sublimated by could at last claim that they were moving the previous writers, has since the seventies apace 'Nith the most recent revivals. The assumed subtle s.hades of meaPing. Self­ initial historical disadvantage of Maltese knowledge has gradually become a sort of literary evolution was finally surpassed. collective conscience uniting writers together in search of something unknown. Although it initially had a decidedly Maltese point of The problem of identity . reference, Maltese literature has since travelled much in diverse directions and is Contemporary Maltese writers are almost constantly heading towards a condition

74 where man, the sea, the ancient land, the has exerted great influence sun, the landscape and all the obvious on most modern writers and it has characteristics of an island, traditionally paradoxically provided them with the identified with the real nature of a country, necessary intellectual content whereby to assume a cosmic, ambiguous significance. justify their own predicament of members The basic problem to be faced by the of a small island community. Maltese writer will long be how to strike a As writers make great efforts to attain a middle course between the two extremes of higher degree of social relevance, their being faithful to the place of origin and spiritual condition seems to be more belonging to the outer world. Citizenship identifiable with that of the inward looking will go on assuming the double role of mystic. Traditionaheligiosity has been national identification and universal largely substituted by a deeper sense of the significance. The archetypal pattern of man mystery encompassing existence itself. They the traveller is still the one most insistently have more questions to put than answers to adopted to portray the image of the self in provide. The island itself is perhaps going search of justification in terms of history through such a process of self-reappraisal. and relevance in terms of new demands Traditions and myths which poets and and conditions. novelists since the sixties have been Insularity has always been transformed divesting of any merit and dignity are now into paradigm, a state of being which is being similarly treated by the younger both local and cosmic in implication. The generation itself. Perhaps the impact these island which the romantics have discovered writers had on the population has been and idealised to assert their own identity much greater than they themselves ever has eventually been transformed into a imagined. It all leads to the conclusion that symbol of the human condition itself. Man even in such a tiny state writers can really himself is now an islander reaching out for play a decisive role in the process of the wide world where an alternative way of modernisation. being can be explored. French

75 Bibliography

Publications by Oliver Friggieri

I. Books

La cultura italiana a Malta - Storia e influenza /etteraria e stilistica attraverso /'opera di Dun Karm, Leo S. Olschki, Firenze, 1978, pp.168. Movimenti letterari e coscienza romantica maltese, Guido Miano, Milano, 1980, pp.56. Cross Winds -An Anthology of Post-War Maltese Poetry, Wilfion Books, Renfrewshire, xxxiv + pp.106. L'esperienza leopardiana di un poeta maltese; Karmenu Vassallo, Edizioni Spes, Milazzo, 1983, pp.J20. Storia del/a /etteratura maltese, I, Edizioni Spes, Milazzo, 1986, pp.400. Saggi sui/a letteratura maltese, Universita di Malta, 1989,. pp.168.

11. Critical Studies

"11 poeta nazionale di Malta - osservazioni linguistiche", Le lingue del mondo, Firenze, XLII, 5, 1977, pp.421-422. "La cultura italiana a Malta nell'Ottocento e nel primo Novecento, I/ Veltro, Roma, 16, 1977, pp.36. "A History of Maltese Literature: its Nature and Extension", Le lingue del mondo, Firenze, XLIII, 6, 1978, pp.502-505. "A Brief Survey of the History of the Maltese Novel" (in Arabic), AI Fusul, Tripoli, 1979, pp.238-249. "New Bearings in Modern Maltese Poetry", Trends, Renfrewshire, Vol. 2, 4, 1979, pp.45-54. "L'incontro ideale trail Leopardi e un poeta maltese: Karmenu Vassallo", Critica letteraria, Universita di Napoli, VIII, 28, 1980, pp.526-558. "Trends in Modern Maltese Poetry" (in Arabic), Almujtam'a, Damascus, 1980, pp.44-45. "Relazioni storico-culturali tra romanticismo italiano e romanticismo maltese", Silarus, Salerno, XVII, 98, 1981, pp.1-7. "Gian Antonio Vassallo - l'introduzione dell'eredita romantica italiana nella poesia maltese", Critica letteraria, Universita di Napoli, IX, 33, 1981, pp.717-744. "Mario Azzopardi: Malta's New Experience Through Poetry", The Jou.rnal of Commonwealth Literature, Oxford, XVI, 1, 1981. "Modern Trends in Maltese Literature", Portland Review, Oregon University, Vol. 27, 2, 1981, pp. 32-33. "11 contributo dei poeti alia trasformazione socio-politica di Malta", A tti-Convegno

"Aspects of Maltese Literature" (in Greek), Kanali 14, Athens, 80, 1981, pp.69-82. "A History of Maltese Literature: its Nature and Extension", Revue, , 20, 1981, pp. 28-30. "Una introduzione alia storia della poesia maltese", Il de/fino, Torino, XII, 63, 1982, pp. 17-18. "Il romanticismo italiano e l'inizio della poesia maltese", Otto Novecento, Varese, VI, 1982, pp.5-40.

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