https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/34713 2026-04-09T01:57:38Z 2026-04-09T01:57:38Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/121554 2024-04-30T10:00:39Z 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Memory and multiplicity in the Mediterraneanist novel : ‘The Lost Sailors’ and ‘N’zid’ Abstract: This dissertation explores representations of the Mediterranean with relation to memory and identity in the novels ‘Les marins perdus’ by Jean Claude Izzo and 'N’zid' by Malika Mokeddem. In both novels the view of the Mediterranean as a shared, and unifying space, echoing ideas of the Saint-Simonians, Gabriel Audisio and Albert Camus, is undermined by representations of tension between its shores, the violence manifested in both novels, and the protagonists’ fractured identities. This invites a rejection of fundamentalisms and proposes a hybrid, if troubled, integrating Mediterranean, open to negotiation and exchange. The Mediterranean becomes a space in which what Amal Treacher Kabesh describes as ‘shards’ of the past, either haunt or are reconciled with the present. The notion of memory as being productive and multidirectional casts light on the way narratives of the past are re-interpreted, and the present is moulded by what is remembered and what is erased. One way this is explored is by analysing how the Mediterranean, its myths and archetypes are appropriated by female characters displaying empowerment and alterability. Women are presented as engaging with these master narratives and re-writing them, in turn re-negotiating themselves as agents and re-negotiating the Mediterranean they inhabit. Multiplicity and reinterpretation become critical responses to what Michael Herzfeld calls ‘essentializing discourses’ about the Mediterranean. As a reflection of a shifting space, of an imaginary involving re-creation and transformation, here the Mediterranean is proposed as a perpetual interrogation and a critical way in which we relate with, (re)interpret and appropriate narratives and histories. Description: M.A.(Melit.)

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/110837 2023-06-21T07:16:38Z 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: An analysis of selected variants and adaptations of Carlo Collodi’s ‘Le avventure di Pinocchio: storia di un burattino’ Abstract: This study is an analysis of a well known and popular theme, Carlo Collodi’s Le Avventure di Pinocchio: Storia di un burattino (1883). Collodi’s Pinocchio (1883) may be considered as a tale that became popular throughout different times and cultures. I chose this narrative in particular, due to my academic formation in Italian Studies. The analysis of this study is in light of my work on previous studies that focus on literary tradition and popular culture. This Italian narrative is popular amongst both young and adult readers, and has inspired authors and producers to recreate and adapt the story according to the target audience of their time. Particular motifs and themes such as the growing nose of Pinocchio, the Blue Haired Fairy, and the cricket are what make Pinocchio a popular tale amongst different cultures. The many variants of Pinocchio (1883) attest to its popularity, and I have selected the following four variants as part of my analysis. Ernest Rhys’ Pinocchio: The Story of a Puppet (1944), Oscar Bruno’s Pinocchio e il cavaliere di Melk (2004), Robert Coover’s Pinocchio in Venice (1992), and Walt Disney’s Pinocchio (1940). These four variants fall between the period of 1944-2004, varying in language from Italian to English and also in medium from text to screen. These variants were chosen above other many variants of Pinocchio, being as each includes a handful of recognizable motifs that resonate the ones of the original text. These variants tend to uncover these motifs across different forms of media, adapted to suit the intended target audience or reader In this analysis I intend to observe the kinds of changes that are applied to the variants and adaptations that were created in different times and different cultures. Culture and time may be considered as two fundamental properties that give other cultures the possibility to experience and enjoy foreign narratives. This notion is possible through the adoption and adaptation of the function of the narrative, characters, motifs and themes from the original text. I will also attest the idea that the reader is an important element in the making of an adaptation, being that the reader reacts to a narrative by expecting certain motifs through recognizable but evolving features such as the representation of the Blue Haired Fairy. These four variants and adaptations were specifically selected as a representation of Roman Jakobson’s three types of translation. According to Jakobson there are three types of translation ‘Intralingual [...], Interlingual [...], and Intersemiotic [...]’ (1971: 261). The analysis will partly build on translation as a form of adaptation of language and narrative. […] Description: M.A.LITERARY TRAD.&POP.CULTURE

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/109140 2023-05-04T07:18:42Z 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Morocco's usage of migration as a weapon for its foreign policy Abstract: In recent decades, Morocco has changed from being a country of emigration to a country of transit as well as a destination for migrants, mainly from Sub-Saharan countries. At the same time, the Kingdom has become a key player in migration control in the Southern Mediterranean, at the external borders of Europe, and one of the main partners in security cooperation of the European Union. Morocco’s main concern regarding foreign policy has been the question of the Western Sahara territories, and has been long looking for the international community to accept its position. Moreover, the EU maintains an ambiguous or unclear position on the matter, primarily because of the different approaches the member states have to the problem and the political interests involved. This research attempts to show that Morocco uses migration management as a weapon for its foreign policy towards Europe. Through a case study methodology and conducting desk research, mainly through the analysis of texts, papers, reports and press articles, and using the process tracing technique, I will analyse how Morocco has been reacting against some decisions taken in Europe. Through the Coercive Engineered Migration theory, I will explain how the country challenges its European counterparts using migration flows, and the reasons behind these coercive attitudes. Description: M.A.MEDITERRANEAN STUDIES

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/71972 2021-03-23T10:19:53Z 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Feminidad y vanguardia en dos de las artistas Españolas del grupo de las Sinsombrero : Rosa Chacel y María Zambrano Abstract: This work aims to demonstrate the concerns on the issue of gender and femininity, in two works of two authors who were part of the group las Sinsombrero: Barrio de Maravillas (1976) by Rosa Chacel and Las palabras del regreso (1995) by María Zambrano. The objective of this investigation is none other than to study how the authors reflect in both of their works the social state of women in the majority of the 20th century and their progressive path towards emancipation. It will be studied how techniques and thoughts of the avant-garde iconography are inserted in both works and also how the avant-garde culture itself affected the artistic creation of the two authors in question. It will be studied how some of the characters in Chacel’s Barrio de Maravillas represent the new emancipated women and how art affected their personal growth. Likewise, we will study how María Zambrano’s thought, approached and solved problems about gender and identity through concepts such as the liberated word of language, existentialist philosophy and the concern of the human being in the 20th century. This dissertation begins with the study of the political, economic, social and cultural reality of Spain of the early 20th century, to study the links between society and the works of the two authors. The biographical data of Zambrano and Chacel is also analysed since their personal life is linked to their work. Followed by a detailed analysis of the two books in question based on the objectives outlines above. It is through this detailed analysis of both books that the researcher wants to show how their personal experience and society affected these author’s works. Description: B.A.(HONS)SPANISH&LATIN AMERICAN STUD.

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z