what is Maltese literature?
Malta belonged to the Muslim world till the end of the 11th century, and this is, admittedly, the starting point of the evolution of the Maltese language as something distinct from Arabic and the variety of its dialects (in this case, the Siculo-Arabic, a specific dialect of Muslim Sicily); yet even today, the degree of resemblance with Arabic makes my pleasure and my joy. For many centuries, this evolution was going on in the shadow of the dominant Christian communication in Latin, and other languages of the island's Christian overlords, such as French, and later on, the colonial British. On the other hand, Italian functioned for a long time as a local tongue of education, commerce, and all sorts of polite writing. The proper, consistent standardization of written Maltese was the work of one man, Mikiel Anton Vassalli (1764-1829). Having studied Oriental languages at la Sapienza, he was uniquely qualified for his linguistic work as the author of a Maltese-Italian dictionary, a Maltese grammar (in Latin), and a translation of the Gospels.
Yet actually the oldest vestiges of written Maltese date back to the 15th century, and the oldest poem, Il-Kantilena by Pietru Caxaro could be written around 1470. Isolated traces of the language, such as a translation of Pater Noster included in a dissertation concerning the alleged Punic origin of the tongue (by Johannes Heinrich Maius, 1718), flash interruptedly along the following centuries. There are some sermons, a catechism, some burlesque verses.
The situation changes radically with Romanticism and its invention of patriotism and love of liberty. Also, with the struggle for Greece's independence, the new epoch reinvented the imaginary of the Turks; it was not without an impact on the island. No wonder that an epic poem, Il-Ġifen Tork (The Turkish Caravel) by Giovanni Antonio Vassallo was published in 1842. There were also Maltese novels, under the influence of Italian ones, such as Manzoni's I promessi sposi. This is how Ineż Farruġ (1889) by Anton Manwel Caruana was given to print.
This is the roughest sketch of how Maltese literature was born. It reached its heyday with the Literary Revival Movement in 1967. But the options of Maltese writers today still include the return to English or Italian as languages of effective communication, permitting them to search for a public beyond the narrow horizons of the local society.
Yet actually the oldest vestiges of written Maltese date back to the 15th century, and the oldest poem, Il-Kantilena by Pietru Caxaro could be written around 1470. Isolated traces of the language, such as a translation of Pater Noster included in a dissertation concerning the alleged Punic origin of the tongue (by Johannes Heinrich Maius, 1718), flash interruptedly along the following centuries. There are some sermons, a catechism, some burlesque verses.
The situation changes radically with Romanticism and its invention of patriotism and love of liberty. Also, with the struggle for Greece's independence, the new epoch reinvented the imaginary of the Turks; it was not without an impact on the island. No wonder that an epic poem, Il-Ġifen Tork (The Turkish Caravel) by Giovanni Antonio Vassallo was published in 1842. There were also Maltese novels, under the influence of Italian ones, such as Manzoni's I promessi sposi. This is how Ineż Farruġ (1889) by Anton Manwel Caruana was given to print.
This is the roughest sketch of how Maltese literature was born. It reached its heyday with the Literary Revival Movement in 1967. But the options of Maltese writers today still include the return to English or Italian as languages of effective communication, permitting them to search for a public beyond the narrow horizons of the local society.
I have read... nothing ...
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a trip to Malta
August 2018
It was a short trip, very short indeed, just a break in my tour of Sicily. It left me fascinated with this beautiful and particularly miserable island, enslaved by the crusaders, made a sort of monk colony for psychopath scions of noble families of Europe, and then colonised by English, who treated its population, speaking a peculiarly picturesque variant of Arabic, just in the same way as they did with other natives of the empire.
Today, Malta is part of the European Union, and one of the few countries, together with Poland, where abortion is illegal. Slouching through history under the burden of its Catholicism. The place fascinated me nonetheless, and I left the bookshop in the main street of Valletta with a heavy bag of books recounting the archipelago's peculiar history, books in Maltese as curios, and some learning material to get familiar with the language. I couldn't resist it; as a variant of Arabic mixed with Italian, it appealed strongly to my instincts. It waits for its improbable moment in my flat in Krakow. And I wish I could come back one day, perhaps for a longer stay, to this quintessence of the Mediterranean.
It was a short trip, very short indeed, just a break in my tour of Sicily. It left me fascinated with this beautiful and particularly miserable island, enslaved by the crusaders, made a sort of monk colony for psychopath scions of noble families of Europe, and then colonised by English, who treated its population, speaking a peculiarly picturesque variant of Arabic, just in the same way as they did with other natives of the empire.
Today, Malta is part of the European Union, and one of the few countries, together with Poland, where abortion is illegal. Slouching through history under the burden of its Catholicism. The place fascinated me nonetheless, and I left the bookshop in the main street of Valletta with a heavy bag of books recounting the archipelago's peculiar history, books in Maltese as curios, and some learning material to get familiar with the language. I couldn't resist it; as a variant of Arabic mixed with Italian, it appealed strongly to my instincts. It waits for its improbable moment in my flat in Krakow. And I wish I could come back one day, perhaps for a longer stay, to this quintessence of the Mediterranean.
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