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.
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'sI promessi sposi and has been the subject of recent scholarly attention.
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 was not rediscovered until 1966 or 1968 by 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.
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]
Walid Nabhan has published two books of short stories in Maltese, and one novel titled L-Eżodu taċ-Ċikonji (2013) which won the Maltese National Prize for Literature in 2014, and the EU Prize for Literature in 2017. He published a collection of poetry in Maltese in 2014. Nabhan has also translated works of Maltese literature into Arabic.[22]
Maltese is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata spoken by the Maltese people. It is the national language of Malta and the only official Semitic and Afro-Asiatic language of the European Union. Maltese is a Latinized variety of spoken historical Arabic through its descent from Siculo-Arabic, which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect in the Emirate of Sicily between 831 and 1091. As a result of the Norman invasion of Malta and the subsequent re-Christianization of the islands, Maltese evolved independently of Classical Arabic in a gradual process of latinization. It is therefore exceptional as a variety of historical Arabic that has no diglossic relationship with Classical or Modern Standard Arabic. Maltese is thus classified separately from the 30 varieties constituting the modern Arabic macrolanguage. Maltese is also distinguished from Arabic and other Semitic languages since its morphology has been deeply influenced by Romance languages, namely Italian and Sicilian.
The culture of Malta has been influenced by various societies that have come into contact with the Maltese Islands throughout the centuries, including neighbouring Mediterranean cultures, and the cultures of the nations that ruled Malta for long periods of time prior to its independence in 1964.
Immanuel Mifsud is a writer of poetry and prose, born in Paola, Malta. He was for a time involved in research theatre. He has written novels, short story and poetry collections, and also books for children.
Żebbuġ, also known by its title Città Rohan, is a city in the Southern Region of Malta. It is one of the oldest towns in the country, and its population is 11,074 as of June 2021.
Il-Kantilena is the oldest known literary text in the Maltese language. It dates from the 15th century, but was not found until 1966 by historians Godfrey Wettinger and Mikiel Fsadni. The poem is attributed to Pietru Caxaro, and was recorded by Caxaro's nephew, Brandano, in his notarial register. It is preserved at the Notarial Archives in Valletta.
Mikiel Anton Vassalli was a Maltese writer, a philosopher, and a linguist who published important Maltese language books, including a Maltese-Italian dictionary, a Maltese grammar book, the first Protestant Gospels in Maltese, and towards the end of his life, a book on Maltese proverbs.
L-Għanja tal-Poplu is a popular Maltese song competition first organized by Youth Travel Circle (YTC) on 5 May 1973 at the St. Albert College in Valletta. The founder of YTC is Rev. Maurice Mifsud. Initially the contest had to register as YTC members. From 1987 onward, the contest took a national dimension. The competing songs are sung primarily in Maltese and are written either by the singers themselves or other songwriters. In the 1990s the contest started being transmitted on local television stations. This contest is today organised by the voluntary organisation L-Għanja tal-Poplu and is slso supported by Arts Council Malta.
Frans Sammut was a Maltese novelist and non-fiction writer.
Pietru "Peter" Caxaro was a Maltese philosopher and poet. He is so far Malta's first known philosopher, fragments of whose works are extant. His philosophical views and positions qualify him as an honourable adherent of the mediaeval humanist movement. His contribution skilfully stands as a mature reflection of the social and cultural revival of his time.
Ninu "Anthony" Cremona, colloquially known as Is-Sur Nin, was a Maltese writer and health inspector.
Ludovik Mifsud Tommasi (1796-1879), also known as Ludovico Mifsud Tommasi, was a Maltese priest and educator, and also author of short poems and short prayers. He was from Cospicua, in southeastern Malta. One of the major works of Mifsud Tommasi, L-Inni Imkaddsa, a bilingual Latin-Maltese book, shows that his work focused on traditional aspects with the story concentrated with religious scenes. The book includes four of the five hymns of Thomas Aquinas. Other important works are Stabat Mater Dolorosa; Christe Sanctorum decus Angelorum; and Magnae Deus Potentiae.
Louis Briffa is a Maltese poet.
Ġużè Muscat Azzopardi was a Maltese lawyer, poet, novelist and social commentator. He studied in the Mdina Seminary, and in the University of Malta, where he graduated as a lawyer in 1875. He was married to Tonina Fenech, and had three sons Ivo and Ġino, who were both writers, and Anton, a composer.
Bonaparte à Malte is a 2008 book by Maltese writer Frans Sammut, with an introduction by Dr Paul Borg Olivier. The Maltese original, Bonaparti f'Malta, was published in 1997.
Philosophy in Malta refers to the philosophy of Maltese nationals or those of Maltese descent, whether living in Malta or abroad, whether writing in their native Maltese language or in a foreign language. Though Malta is not more than a tiny European island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, for the last six centuries its very small population happened to come in close contact with some of Europe's main political, academic and intellectual movements. Philosophy was among the interests fostered by its academics and intellectuals.
Oliver Friggieri was a Maltese poet, novelist, literary critic, and philosopher. He led the establishment of literary history and criticism in Maltese while teaching at the University of Malta, studying the works of Dun Karm, Rużar Briffa, and others. A prolific writer himself, Friggieri explored new genres to advocate the Maltese language, writing the libretti for the first oratorio and the first cantata in Maltese. His work aimed to promote the Maltese cultural identity, while not shying from criticism: one of his most famous novels, Fil-Parlament Ma Jikbrux Fjuri, attacked the tribalistic divisions of society caused by politics. From philosophy, he was mostly interested in epistemology and existentialism.
Although Malta is a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea with a small population, it is nonetheless rich in its history and its culture. When in the 1950s, in nearby Italy the San Remo Festival, and later in Switzerland, the Eurovision Song Contest came into existence, Malta soon followed suit by organizing its own National Song Festival.
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