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Maltese literature

February 04, 2023

Maltese literature is any literature originating from Malta or by Maltese writers or literature written in the Maltese language.

This article will give an overview of the history of Maltese-language literature.

History

Written Maltese

As Maltese evolved after Count Roger I of Sicily ended Arab rule on the island at the end of the 11th century, there was little interest in developing a written form of the language. Initially only the clergy, aristocracy and bourgeoisie were able to read and write and much of their communication was conducted in Latin. Throughout the centuries use of the Maltese language was often discouraged with varying enthusiasm, ostensibly in the hope that supplanting it would strengthen ties with the country which held possession of Malta at that particular point in time. Under the Knights of St John both Italian and French were used for official documents and correspondence. During the British colonial period the use of English was encouraged through education, with Italian regarded as the next most influential language. It was not until 1936 that Maltese was recognised as the island's official language. Uniquely, no other European country lacked a standardised written form of its language until the 19th century, when men such as Mikiel Anton Vassalli made a concerted effort to transcribe spoken Maltese into a written form, although examples of written Maltese exist from as early as the 15th century.

Diglossia

The development of native Maltese literary works has historically been hampered by the diglossia that has characterized the culture of Malta throughout its history. For many centuries, Maltese was known as the language "of the kitchen and the workshop", while Italian was the language of education, literature, the arts, law and commerce.[1] Hence, until the early 20th century, the vast majority of literary works in Malta were written in Italian by the community of Maltese Italians. In early Maltese history, diglossia manifested itself in the co-existence of a developed form of Siculo-Arabic and the language of a series of rulers, most notably Latin, Greek, Sicilian, French, Spanish and Italian. From 1800 onwards these were largely supplanted by English. The Maltese language is today heavily overlaid with Romance and English influences as a result.

According to Prof. Oliver Friggieri:

Maltese writers developed an uninterrupted local "Italian" literary movement which went on up to about four decades ago, whereas Maltese as a literary idiom started to coexist on a wide scale in the last decades of the 19th century. Whilst Maltese has the historical priority on the level of the spoken language, Italian has the priority of being the almost exclusive written medium, for the socio-cultural affairs, for the longest period. The native tongue had only to wait for the arrival of a new mentality which could integrate an unwritten, popular tradition with a written, academically respectable one.[2]

The emergence of Maltese literature

The oldest known literary text in the Maltese language is Pietru Caxaro's poem, Il-Kantilena (c. 1470 to 1485) (also known as Xidew il-Qada), followed by Gian Francesco Bonamico's sonnet of praise to Grand Master Nicolas Cotoner, Mejju gie' bl'Uard, u Zahar (The month of May has arrived, with roses and orange blossoms), c. 1672. The earliest known Maltese dictionary was written by Francois de Vion Thezan Court (c. 1640). In 1700, an anonymous Gozitan poet wrote Jaħasra Mingħajr Ħtija (Unfortunately Innocent). A Maltese translation of the Lord's Prayer appeared in Johannes Heinrich Maius's work Specimen Lingua Punicæ in hodierna Melitensium superstitis (1718), demonstrating the formerly wide-held belief that the language had a Punic heritage. A collection of religious sermons by a certain Dun Ignazio Saverio Mifsud, published between 1739 and 1746, is regarded as the earliest known example of Maltese prose.

An anonymous poem entitled Fuqek Nitħaddet Malta (I am talking about you, Malta), was written c. 1749, regarding the Conspiracy of the Slaves. A few years later, in 1752, a catechism entitled Tagħlim Nisrani ta' Dun Franġisk Wizzino (Don Francesco Wizzino's Christian Teachings) was published in both Maltese and Italian. The occasion of Carnival in 1760 saw the publication of a collection of burlesque verses under the heading Żwieġ la Maltija (Marriage, in the Maltese Style), by Dun Feliċ Demarco.

A child of the Romantic movement, Maltese patriot Mikiel Anton Vassalli (1764–1829) hailed the emergence of literary Maltese as "one of the ancient patrimonies...of the new emerging nation" and saw this nascent trend as: (1) the affirmation of the singular and collective identity, and (2) the cultivation and diffusion of the national speech medium as the most sacred component in the definition of the patria and as the most effective justification both for a dominated community's claim to be a nation and for the subsequent struggle against foreign rulers.[2]

Between 1798 and 1800, while Malta was under French occupation, a Maltese translation of L-Għanja tat-Trijonf tal-Libertà (Ode to the Triumph of Liberty), by Citizen La Coretterie, Secretary to the French Government Commissioner, was published on the occasion of Bastille Day.

The first translation into Maltese of a biblical text, the Gospel of St. John, was published in 1822 (trans. Ġużeppi Marija Cannolo), on the initiative of the Bible Society in Malta. The first Maltese language newspaper, l-Arlekkin Jew Kawlata Ingliża u Maltija (The Harlequin, or a mix of English and Maltese) appeared in 1839, and featured the poems l-Imħabba u Fantasija (Love and Fantasy) and Sunett (A Sonnett).

The first epic poem in Maltese, Il-Ġifen Tork (The Turkish Caravel), by Giovanni Antonio Vassallo, was published in 1842, followed by Ħrejjef bil-Malti (Legends in Maltese) and Ħrejjef u Ċajt bil-Malti (Legends and Jokes in Maltese) in 1861 and 1863 respectively. The same author published the first history book in the Maltese language entitled Storja ta’ Malta Miktuba għall-Poplu (The People's History of Malta) in 1862.

1863 saw the publication of the first novel in Maltese, Elvira Jew Imħabba ta’ Tirann (Elvira, or the Love of a Tyrant) by the Neapolitan author, Giuseppe Folliero de Luna. Anton Manwel Caruana's novel Ineż Farruġ (1889), the first Maltese novel, was modelled on traditional Italian historical novels, such as Manzoni's I promessi sposi and has been the subject of recent scholarly attention.

Notable Maltese writers

Poetry

Il-Kantilena

Il-Kantilena is the oldest written text known to exist in Maltese, dating from no later than 1485, the death of Pietru Caxaro, the author it is attributed to. It wasn't rediscovered until 1966 or 1968 by Prof. Godfrey Wettinger and Fr. Mikiel Fsadni in the Valletta Notarial Archives. Frans Sammut published a revolutionary interpretation of it in 2009. Karmenu Mallia translated it into Esperanto and wrote an article about it in 'Literatura Foiro'.

Contemporary literature

 
Frans Sammut holding a copy of Mikiel Anton Vassalli's collection of Maltese proverbs.

The post-War years saw the emergence of Moviment Qawmien Letterarju (Literary Revival Movement) in 1967, an avant-garde literary movement the protagonists of which included Oliver Friggieri (later Professor of Maltese at the University of Malta), Frans Sammut (1945–2011), the "national author", Alfred Sant (who was Prime Minister from 1996 to 1998), Lino Spiteri (who was Finance Minister in two Governments),[5] and others.[6]

Among Oliver Friggieri's most important works is the collection of his poems.[7]

Frans Sammut's reputation is built on his novels Il-Gaġġa (on which the film with the same name is based[8]), Samuraj,[9] Paceville[10] and Il-Ħolma Maltija[11] (translated in Esperanto as La Malta Revo). Alfred Sant is known for his theatre collected mostly in his Fid-Dell tal-Katidral u Drammi Ohra,[12] whereas Lino Spiteri became renowned for his novel Rivoluzzjoni Do Minore[13] and his short stories.

The Moviment Qawmien Letterarju scene eventually gave way to a new wave of writers, whose voices have shaped the contemporary literature scene. Foremost amongst these are writers such as Albert Marshall, Immanuel Mifsud, Adrian Grima, and Antoine Cassar. The contemporary scene has also seen the emergence of a new generation of writers including Simone Inguanez, Nadia Mifsud, Simone Galea, Elizabeth Grech, Clare Azzopardi,[14] Lon Kirkop,[15] Kirsten Spiteri and Lara Calleja who won the European Union Prize for Literature for her book Kissirtu Kullimkien.[16]

Nowadays Maltese literature is dominated by literature in the Maltese language (e.g., Alex Vella Gera,[17] Guze' Stagno[18]), some works in English (Francis Ebejer[19] for instance), and some works in Italian, such as the poems of Judge J.J. Cremona[20] and Albert Caruana's ebook Il Sindaco di Racalmusci.[21]

List of books in Maltese

Notes

  1. ^ Lawrence Attard Bezzina, "Maltese and Hebrew: Two Cases of Cultural Survival"
  2. ^ a b Prof. Oliver Friggieri, "Main Trends in the History of Maltese Literature"
  3. ^ "To move forward in exhilaration". Times of Malta. Retrieved 2019-05-17.
  4. ^ "'Writing is an act of exploration' - Leanne Ellul interviewed in the Times of Malta". Inizjamed. 2021-08-11. Retrieved 2021-11-06.
  5. ^ mt:Lino Spiteri
  6. ^ "ONE Group".
  7. ^ Il-Poeziji Migbura: Amazon.co.uk: Oliver Friggieri: Books. amazon.co.uk. January 2002. Retrieved 2014-11-30.
  8. ^ "Remastering of Film 'il-Gagga" - YouTube". youtube.com. Retrieved 2014-11-30.[dead YouTube link]
  9. ^ . adriangrima.com. Archived from the original on 2011-05-07. Retrieved 2014-11-30.
  10. ^ Sammut, F. (1991). Paceville. Merlin Library. ISBN 9789999003803. OCLC 35262003. Retrieved 2014-11-30.
  11. ^ Sammut, F. (2012). Il-h̳olma Maltija: rumanz. SKS. ISBN 9789993217183. Retrieved 2014-11-30.
  12. ^ "Fid-Dell tal-Katidral u drammi ohra | Drama |". bdlbooks.com. Retrieved 2014-11-30.
  13. ^ Rivoluzzjoni do minore / Lino Spiteri | National Library of Australia. catalogue.nla.gov.au. 1980. Retrieved 2014-11-30.
  14. ^ "Charting the Centre of the Periphery: A Disclaimer". Transcript. Retrieved 2016-02-12.
  15. ^ "A work of fiction explores the very real rise of social media influencers". Times of Malta. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  16. ^ "REPRESENTATIONS - Item". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  17. ^ . sundaycircle.com. Archived from the original on 2014-07-03. Retrieved 2014-11-30.
  18. ^ mt:Ġużè Stagno
  19. ^ . zrakogled.org. Archived from the original on 2014-03-22. Retrieved 2014-11-30.
  20. ^ . president.gov.mt. Archived from the original on 2014-10-25. Retrieved 2014-11-30.
  21. ^ "Il Sindaco di Racalmusci e altri racconti dall'introterra maltese eBook: Albert Caruana: Amazon.it: Kindle Store". amazon.it. Retrieved 2014-11-30.

External links

  • Main Trends in the history of Maltese literature
  • Post-Independence Maltese poetry
  • Maltese Literature - the New Writing
  • Contemporary Writing Scene in Malta
  • Letteratura Maltija
  • Maħżen Poeżija
  • Radio Interviews

February 04, 2023
maltese, literature, category, maltese, list, writersmaltese, authorswriters, novelists, playwrights, poets, essayistsformsnovel, poetry, playscriticism, awardsliterary, theory, critics, literary, prizessee, alsomikiel, anton, vassalli, taħt, tliet, saltniet, . Maltese literatureBy category Maltese List of writersMaltese authorsWriters Novelists Playwrights Poets EssayistsFormsNovel Poetry PlaysCriticism amp AwardsLiterary theory Critics Literary PrizesSee alsoMikiel Anton Vassalli Taħt Tliet Saltniet Il Kantilena Ruzar Briffa Manuel MagriMalta PortalLiterature PortalMaltese literature is any literature originating from Malta or by Maltese writers or literature written in the Maltese language This article will give an overview of the history of Maltese language literature Contents 1 History 1 1 Written Maltese 1 1 1 Diglossia 1 1 2 The emergence of Maltese literature 1 1 3 Notable Maltese writers 2 Poetry 2 1 Il Kantilena 3 Contemporary literature 4 List of books in Maltese 5 Notes 6 External linksHistory EditWritten Maltese Edit As Maltese evolved after Count Roger I of Sicily ended Arab rule on the island at the end of the 11th century there was little interest in developing a written form of the language Initially only the clergy aristocracy and bourgeoisie were able to read and write and much of their communication was conducted in Latin Throughout the centuries use of the Maltese language was often discouraged with varying enthusiasm ostensibly in the hope that supplanting it would strengthen ties with the country which held possession of Malta at that particular point in time Under the Knights of St John both Italian and French were used for official documents and correspondence During the British colonial period the use of English was encouraged through education with Italian regarded as the next most influential language It was not until 1936 that Maltese was recognised as the island s official language Uniquely no other European country lacked a standardised written form of its language until the 19th century when men such as Mikiel Anton Vassalli made a concerted effort to transcribe spoken Maltese into a written form although examples of written Maltese exist from as early as the 15th century Diglossia Edit The development of native Maltese literary works has historically been hampered by the diglossia that has characterized the culture of Malta throughout its history For many centuries Maltese was known as the language of the kitchen and the workshop while Italian was the language of education literature the arts law and commerce 1 Hence until the early 20th century the vast majority of literary works in Malta were written in Italian by the community of Maltese Italians In early Maltese history diglossia manifested itself in the co existence of a developed form of Siculo Arabic and the language of a series of rulers most notably Latin Greek Sicilian French Spanish and Italian From 1800 onwards these were largely supplanted by English The Maltese language is today heavily overlaid with Romance and English influences as a result According to Prof Oliver Friggieri Maltese writers developed an uninterrupted local Italian literary movement which went on up to about four decades ago whereas Maltese as a literary idiom started to coexist on a wide scale in the last decades of the 19th century Whilst Maltese has the historical priority on the level of the spoken language Italian has the priority of being the almost exclusive written medium for the socio cultural affairs for the longest period The native tongue had only to wait for the arrival of a new mentality which could integrate an unwritten popular tradition with a written academically respectable one 2 The emergence of Maltese literature Edit The oldest known literary text in the Maltese language is Pietru Caxaro s poem Il Kantilena c 1470 to 1485 also known as Xidew il Qada followed by Gian Francesco Bonamico s sonnet of praise to Grand Master Nicolas Cotoner Mejju gie bl Uard u Zahar The month of May has arrived with roses and orange blossoms c 1672 The earliest known Maltese dictionary was written by Francois de Vion Thezan Court c 1640 In 1700 an anonymous Gozitan poet wrote Jaħasra Mingħajr Ħtija Unfortunately Innocent A Maltese translation of the Lord s Prayer appeared in Johannes Heinrich Maius s work Specimen Lingua Punicae in hodierna Melitensium superstitis 1718 demonstrating the formerly wide held belief that the language had a Punic heritage A collection of religious sermons by a certain Dun Ignazio Saverio Mifsud published between 1739 and 1746 is regarded as the earliest known example of Maltese prose An anonymous poem entitled Fuqek Nitħaddet Malta I am talking about you Malta was written c 1749 regarding the Conspiracy of the Slaves A few years later in 1752 a catechism entitled Tagħlim Nisrani ta Dun Franġisk Wizzino Don Francesco Wizzino s Christian Teachings was published in both Maltese and Italian The occasion of Carnival in 1760 saw the publication of a collection of burlesque verses under the heading Zwieġ la Maltija Marriage in the Maltese Style by Dun Feliċ Demarco A child of the Romantic movement Maltese patriot Mikiel Anton Vassalli 1764 1829 hailed the emergence of literary Maltese as one of the ancient patrimonies of the new emerging nation and saw this nascent trend as 1 the affirmation of the singular and collective identity and 2 the cultivation and diffusion of the national speech medium as the most sacred component in the definition of the patria and as the most effective justification both for a dominated community s claim to be a nation and for the subsequent struggle against foreign rulers 2 Between 1798 and 1800 while Malta was under French occupation a Maltese translation of L Għanja tat Trijonf tal Liberta Ode to the Triumph of Liberty by Citizen La Coretterie Secretary to the French Government Commissioner was published on the occasion of Bastille Day The first translation into Maltese of a biblical text the Gospel of St John was published in 1822 trans Ġuzeppi Marija Cannolo on the initiative of the Bible Society in Malta The first Maltese language newspaper l Arlekkin Jew Kawlata Ingliza u Maltija The Harlequin or a mix of English and Maltese appeared in 1839 and featured the poems l Imħabba u Fantasija Love and Fantasy and Sunett A Sonnett The first epic poem in Maltese Il Ġifen Tork The Turkish Caravel by Giovanni Antonio Vassallo was published in 1842 followed by Ħrejjef bil Malti Legends in Maltese and Ħrejjef u Ċajt bil Malti Legends and Jokes in Maltese in 1861 and 1863 respectively The same author published the first history book in the Maltese language entitled Storja ta Malta Miktuba għall Poplu The People s History of Malta in 1862 1863 saw the publication of the first novel in Maltese Elvira Jew Imħabba ta Tirann Elvira or the Love of a Tyrant by the Neapolitan author Giuseppe Folliero de Luna Anton Manwel Caruana s novel Inez Farruġ 1889 the first Maltese novel was modelled on traditional Italian historical novels such as Manzoni s I promessi sposi and has been the subject of recent scholarly attention Notable Maltese writers Edit Clare Azzopardi Antoine Cassar John A Bonello Daniel Massa 3 Ġuze Bonnici Ruzar Briffa Anton Buttigieg Ray Buttigieg Pietru Caxaro Ninu Cremona Francis Ebejer Victor Fenech Oliver Friggieri Herbert Ganado Alfons Maria Galea Ġuze Galea Karmenu Mallia Mary Meilak Doreen Micallef Immanuel Mifsud Achille Mizzi Gioacchino Navarro Ġorġ Pisani Dun Karm Psaila Ġuze Cassar Pullicino Frans Said Frans Sammut Mikiel Anton Vassalli Trevor Zahra Lon Kirkop Godfrey Wettinger Emanuel Benjamin Vella Reginald Vella Tomlin Leanne Ellul 4 Poetry EditIl Kantilena Edit Il Kantilena is the oldest written text known to exist in Maltese dating from no later than 1485 the death of Pietru Caxaro the author it is attributed to It wasn t rediscovered until 1966 or 1968 by Prof Godfrey Wettinger and Fr Mikiel Fsadni in the Valletta Notarial Archives Frans Sammut published a revolutionary interpretation of it in 2009 Karmenu Mallia translated it into Esperanto and wrote an article about it in Literatura Foiro Contemporary literature Edit Frans Sammut holding a copy of Mikiel Anton Vassalli s collection of Maltese proverbs The post War years saw the emergence of Moviment Qawmien Letterarju Literary Revival Movement in 1967 an avant garde literary movement the protagonists of which included Oliver Friggieri later Professor of Maltese at the University of Malta Frans Sammut 1945 2011 the national author Alfred Sant who was Prime Minister from 1996 to 1998 Lino Spiteri who was Finance Minister in two Governments 5 and others 6 Among Oliver Friggieri s most important works is the collection of his poems 7 Frans Sammut s reputation is built on his novels Il Gaġġa on which the film with the same name is based 8 Samuraj 9 Paceville 10 and Il Ħolma Maltija 11 translated in Esperanto as La Malta Revo Alfred Sant is known for his theatre collected mostly in his Fid Dell tal Katidral u Drammi Ohra 12 whereas Lino Spiteri became renowned for his novel Rivoluzzjoni Do Minore 13 and his short stories The Moviment Qawmien Letterarju scene eventually gave way to a new wave of writers whose voices have shaped the contemporary literature scene Foremost amongst these are writers such as Albert Marshall Immanuel Mifsud Adrian Grima and Antoine Cassar The contemporary scene has also seen the emergence of a new generation of writers including Simone Inguanez Nadia Mifsud Simone Galea Elizabeth Grech Clare Azzopardi 14 Lon Kirkop 15 Kirsten Spiteri and Lara Calleja who won the European Union Prize for Literature for her book Kissirtu Kullimkien 16 Nowadays Maltese literature is dominated by literature in the Maltese language e g Alex Vella Gera 17 Guze Stagno 18 some works in English Francis Ebejer 19 for instance and some works in Italian such as the poems of Judge J J Cremona 20 and Albert Caruana s ebook Il Sindaco di Racalmusci 21 List of books in Maltese EditTaħt Tliet Saltniet Zmien L Ispanjoli Il Gaġġa Samuraj Il Ħolma Maltija Paceville Perfettament Imperfetta Mitt Elf Isem Ieħor HappyVeganGirlJules Kissirtu Kullimkien Lucy Min Il Fiddien Kulħadd Ħalla Isem Warajh RokitNotes Edit Lawrence Attard Bezzina Maltese and Hebrew Two Cases of Cultural Survival a b Prof Oliver Friggieri Main Trends in the History of Maltese Literature To move forward in exhilaration Times of Malta Retrieved 2019 05 17 Writing is an act of exploration Leanne Ellul interviewed in the Times of Malta Inizjamed 2021 08 11 Retrieved 2021 11 06 mt Lino Spiteri ONE Group Il Poeziji Migbura Amazon co uk Oliver Friggieri Books amazon co uk January 2002 Retrieved 2014 11 30 Remastering of Film il Gagga YouTube youtube com Retrieved 2014 11 30 dead YouTube link A Village for an Island Frans Sammut s Samuraj adriangrima com Archived from the original on 2011 05 07 Retrieved 2014 11 30 Sammut F 1991 Paceville Merlin Library ISBN 9789999003803 OCLC 35262003 Retrieved 2014 11 30 Sammut F 2012 Il h olma Maltija rumanz SKS ISBN 9789993217183 Retrieved 2014 11 30 Fid Dell tal Katidral u drammi ohra Drama bdlbooks com Retrieved 2014 11 30 Rivoluzzjoni do minore Lino Spiteri National Library of Australia catalogue nla gov au 1980 Retrieved 2014 11 30 Charting the Centre of the Periphery A Disclaimer Transcript Retrieved 2016 02 12 A work of fiction explores the very real rise of social media influencers Times of Malta Retrieved 2022 05 28 REPRESENTATIONS Item ec europa eu Retrieved 2022 05 28 Interview with Alex Vella Gera The Sunday Circle Online Magazine sundaycircle com Archived from the original on 2014 07 03 Retrieved 2014 11 30 mt Ġuze Stagno Francis Ebejer Skok malteskih delfinov roman KUD AAC Zrakogled zrakogled org Archived from the original on 2014 03 22 Retrieved 2014 11 30 Sorry The page you are looking for does not exist president gov mt Archived from the original on 2014 10 25 Retrieved 2014 11 30 Il Sindaco di Racalmusci e altri racconti dall introterra maltese eBook Albert Caruana Amazon it Kindle Store amazon it Retrieved 2014 11 30 External links EditMain Trends in the history of Maltese literature Maltese poetry Post Independence Maltese poetry Maltese Literature the New Writing Contemporary Writing Scene in Malta Maltese Literature Since 1990 Letteratura Maltija Maħzen Poezija Radio Interviews Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Maltese literature amp oldid 1134574998, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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