https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/6273 2026-04-27T02:57:33Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/95612 Title: The Maltese ballad, l-għana tal-fatt, its cultural transition and social element Abstract: The origins of the ballad, which has a long tradition in Europe, can be traced to tribal cultures in precisely determined historical moments, the different phenomena in its concept being widely spread historically and geographically. This cultural mobility and survival has extended across ages, cultures, ethnic groups and media through various genres. This reinforces the view that folklore influences a range of communicative media and, as Dundes argues, helps combat the equating of anything folkloristic with the past. In this dissertation, by identifying and interpreting the social and historical context, I intend to explore the considerable corpus of Maltese dramatic and plain factual ballads l-għana tal-fatt's thematic engagement with human conflict, either within humanity itself or its conflicts with the forces of nature, requiring certain pre-conditions and the corresponding consequences explicated in linear time - moving from the past to the future through the present - and their relation to the literary canon. The last hundred and sixty years have witnessed the enrichment of the Maltese folkloric inheritance of ballads running parallel with the development of Maltese literature, while the performance of ballads was being executed live in the annual Imnarja festival, in agrarian festivals and for the last sixteen years also in the annual Għana festival, on radio and television, helping us gauge its reception also through intercultural communication. Popular ballads' varying themes centre round a real or fictitious character, prominent or not, victim or hero/ine of some adventure, crime or scandal sometimes ending with a moral, issues of nationalism, identity and authenticity. Ballad authors' and singers' rendering of the text brings to the fore the ideals of the society of which they form part, occasionally with a political or partisan end. My corpus is built of chapbooks concerning crime and its judicial punishment, listed in Ragonesi (Mifsud Chircop ed.) and other publications and manuscripts, printed collections in the University of Malta Melitensia, the National Libraries of Malta and Gozo and private collections. Description: M.A.LITERARY TRAD.&POP.CULTURE 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/90679 Title: Los elementos culturales del Mediterráneo en la trilogía de Federico García Lorca : ‘Bodas de Sangre’, ‘Yerma’ y ‘La casa de Bernarda Alba’ Abstract: Through this dissertation, we are providing a detailed and thorough study about the theatrical elements which can be found in all the three plays which compose the rural trilogy of Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936): 'Bodas de sangre ', 'Yerma' and 'La casa de Bernarda Alba' and his inspirations while writing it. The study which is being offered reveals that the main source of inspiration of this trilogy comes from the classical Greek tragedy: themes, characters or symbols. Andalusian and Mediterranean cultures also played an important part in the composition of Lorca' s tragedies: rituals, religion, choir. Lorca was influenced as well by the writings of classical Spanish authors such as Calderon and Lope, and other modem authors especially the avant-gardists. Lorca implements all these elements in his plays and he combines them with his own originality creating a new, complete and poetic theatre which, apart from entertaining, educates the people. It is a theatre dedicated to the public and not reserved for the upper classes. Moreover, as confirmed by previous studies together with our dissertation, Lorca's trilogy includes universal themes which leave an effect on the characters, reflecting his intentions to create a trilogy which go beyond the local environment from which they emerge. Therefore, this dissertation opens new areas of study with regards to Lorca's reception and influence in Spain and in other countries, and the reason why Lorca's trilogy is considered as an outstanding work of art, transforming this author into a canonical poet and playwrite. Description: B.A.(HONS)SPANISH&LATIN AMERICAN STUD. 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/90377 Title: La visión de dos Españas opuestas y enfrentadas : fascismo o revolución en ‘Madrid, de Corte a checa’ y ‘Réquiem por un campesino español’ Abstract: The Spanish Second Republic and subsequent Civil War were important political and historical events which divided Spain into two -the conservative faction, defending traditional values, and the republican bloc in favour of revolutionary ones. The political, social and economic reforms, brought by the change in the regime, contributed to the formation of the Spanish contemporary society whilst also influencing the culture and the arts creating works implicated with the ideals of these movements. The aim of this dissertation is to show the ideological influence in novel -namely fascism in ‘Madrid; de Corte a checa’ by Agustin de Foxa and revolution in Requiem por un campesino espanol by Ramon J. Sender. Both sides had at their disposal authors compromised with their ideals and who dedicated themselves to write propagandistic or social literature. This investigation intends to prove how such authors manipulated history and portrayed their enemies in a bad light. Although the historiography has demonstrated crimes committed by both sides -both republicans and conservatives have carried out a hard repression in their respective territories-, these novels omit the violent behaviour of their movements. In addition, literary critics tend to set aside the fascist literature, regarded as too fanatic whilst studying in detail the literature sympathizing with the republicans (Lorca, Alberti, Miguel Hernandez ... ). It is through a detailed analysis of the characters in both novels that the investigator wants to show that also the republican literature is responsible of manipulating history. The first chapter discusses the political, economic and social panorama of Spain at the beginning of the 20th century and how this influenced the life and literary creation of the two authors being analysed. The subsequent two chapters investigate the Manichean techniques implemented by the writers to describe their characters and with which they intended to defend their values and incriminate their enemies. Description: B.A.(HONS)SPANISH&LATIN AMERICAN STUD. 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/90350 Title: Un análisis de las variaciones lingüísticas en el español hablado en el Perú Abstract: The present dissertation studies a section of the Spanish language spoken in America. Persons who lack background knowledge regarding such matter tend to believe that that Spanish tongue spoken in Spain and in the remaining 20 Spanish speaking countries is a homogenous one, however the Spanish language actually encompasses several feels, which strengthen its vigour and flexibility as a language. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to study one lect in particular that of Peru, a multilingual country, while comparing it to the Standard Spanish. The data will be compiled through an analysis of six literary works ·written by distinguished Peruvian authors and three audio-visual productions based on three of the analysed narrative accounts, aiming to examine the linguistic scientific branches of the morphosyntax, phonetic-phonology, lexicology, together with some pragmatic and sociological aspects. The unique characteristic of the Peruvian Spanish is due to the long-lived interference and transference from the Amerindian languages, particularly the Quechua and Aymara languages, instilled during its evolvement along the Colonial Period. The analysis sets off with the intention to establish how solid the influence of the indigenous languages is in nowadays Peruvian speech and, to study the differences between the regional speech patterns of the coast and the mountain range areas respectively, by means of the data retrieved from the literary and cinematographic works. Moreover, special consideration will be dedicated to the investigation of lects which were not mentioned in the consulted studies, which nonetheless could shed light on the objectives of this dissertation. Description: B.A.(HONS)SPANISH&LATIN AMERICAN STUD. 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z