https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/41691 Sat, 25 Apr 2026 09:40:59 GMT 2026-04-25T09:40:59Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/137047 Title: Creative process, unfinished product : Friedrich Schiller's dramatic fragment ‘Die Maltheser’ : history, sources, reception and themes Abstract: This thesis presents a comprehensive overview and a discussion of one of Friedrich Schiller's dramatic fragments, ‘Die Maltheser’ (The Knights of Malta). Schiller's correspondence and notes bear witness to the fact that the idea of writing the play worried him for at least fifteen years. No other project enticed, yet tormented him so strongly and for so long. For the light it casts on his creative thinking processes and development as a playwright, ‘Die Maltheser’ is widely considered by critics to be unique. Part One of this thesis introduces Schiller's fifteen small dramatic fragments ('small' compared with Demetrius) and discusses their significance, the evolution of ‘Die Maltheser’, and Schiller's other works concerning the Order of the Knights of Malta. Part Two analyses the historical background of ‘Die Maltheser’, Schiller's plot(s) and his deviations from history. It traces his sources and other possible influences, and illustrates his doubts and problems concerning the project. Part Three summarizes the turbulent history of Schiller's manuscripts and the editions of ‘Die Maltheser’. The subsequent detailed review of the dramatic fragment's reception over nearly two hundred years shows that, while most critics viewed 'sublime heroism' and 'moral excellence' as the planned drama's outstanding qualities, as with Schiller's other works, it was often used and misused for political purposes. Moreover, the divergent and at times contradictory critical interpretations attest to both the problematic and dynamic nature of the dramatic fragment and to the difficulties of trying to cast Schiller into a single interpretative mould. Part Four focuses on the two key concepts which, from the beginning, were at the heart of the play - the 'Greek form' and the 'passionate friendship' motif. The final discussion proposes that ‘Die Maltheser’ is the literary work that reflects most faithfully Schiller's aesthetic concepts and contains his most tangible endeavour to portray in the theatre his philosophical concept of ideal beauty. Description: PH.D. Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/137047 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/130113 Title: Gozo in the world and the world in Gozo : the cultural impact of migration and return migration on an island community Abstract: This thesis explores the meaning and significance of migration and return migration between the Maltese island of Gozo and the Australian city of Melbourne. The exploration begins in the Introduction with 'Lina', a Gozitan. return migrant from Melboume whose situation captures the dilemma of cultural 'hybridity'. Through Lina, the reader is introduced in turn to the concept of crossings into worlds beyond the familiar, a metaphor which is employed throughout the thesis. With her experience of crossings, Lina, it is suggested, is, like so many Gozitans, simultaneously 'home' and 'homeless'. As argued throughout the thesis, among Gozitan migrant and return migrant communities, diversity and difference coexist alongside similarity and unity, and should not be thought of as mutually exclusive. Similarly, it is argued that local and global must be understood as intermeshed-particularly in the processes of migration and return migration-if we are to understand the evolving Gozitan identity. These themes are elaborated in the following three chapters, which explore the ways in which being 'Gozitan' are articulated, as well as the ways in which 'non-Gozitan' characteristics of life are negotiated. Chapter 1, 'Ferry Crossings', explores how Gozitans maintain essentialised representations of their island and themselves in deliberate contrast to the neighbouring island of Malta and the Maltese. Chapter 2, 'Gozitan Identity Under Construction', elaborates some of the theoretical difficulties and contradictions of such idealised self- representations. It engages with debates surrounding questions of identity formation in relation to Gozitan migrants to the western suburbs of Melbourne and return migrants back to Gozo. Borrowing such concepts as 'positionality', 'habitus', 'hidden transcripts' and 'reflexivity', the chapter establishes a conceptual and theoretical framework for approaching the notion of 'Gozitan identity'. Chapter 3, 'Double Crossings: Positioned Ethnography and Writing Gozo', outlines the ethnographic method employed to research these issues. As the chapter describes, the writer's engagement with the topic-as 'outside' researcher and 'inside' Gozitan-was at times a problematic process. As its title suggests, the chapter sets the stage for ethnographically mapping the contours of Gozitan identity as they are affected by the crossings and double (return) crossings between Gozo and Melbourne. The following four chapters focus on the crossings to Australia. They describe how the conditions of life in Melbourne's western suburbs and the ways in which Gozitan migrants responded to them generated a set of socially-produced practices and perceptions-a 'habitus' in Bourdieu's terms-which continues to inform and form their sense of who they are and their place in the world. Specifically, Chapter 4, 'The Land at the Edge of the World', describes how Gozitans transformatively created 'Gozo' in Melbourne as they settled in the municipality of Brimbank. As the chapter argues, perceived similarities between the western suburbs of Melbourne and the island of Gazo were refracted, in particular, through the prism of identification with the land. Chapter 5 argues that just as land is central to the habitus of Gozitan identity, so too is work 'Making Dreams Work' explores the importance of work-:including · recreational activities-for Gozitans, and contends that in [...] Description: PH.D. Tue, 01 Jan 2002 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/130113 2002-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/124737 Title: ‘A question of taste’ : identifying pathways for the interpretation of food in museums and heritage sites in Malta Abstract: This research aims to establish the best interpretative strategies to present food histories, narratives and displays in Maltese museums. Given the limited presence of Maltese food in local restaurants, this study seeks to explore how tourists can engage with Maltese food culture and history through museums. Drawing from international examples of food museums and exhibitions, insights from local food curators, historians, chefs, and writers, and the results of a survey eliciting how target audiences would like to experience the interpretation of food in museums, this research endeavours to address the inadequacies in food interpretation narratives within Maltese museums, where current practices often remain object-centric. Rooted in these elicited themes and strategies this study suggests branded museum cafes and a multi-sensory and immersive Museum of Maltese Food as possible mediums for local and foreign visitors to encounter typical Maltese dishes and both historical and contemporary foodways. Description: M.A. Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/124737 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/123144 Title: An anthropological examination of aspects of Maltese culture : the Maltese in Malta, and the Maltese in New York City Abstract: This ethnographic study examines aspects of Maltese culture relating to the Maltese in Malta and the Maltese in New York City. Four specific aspects of Maltese culture are examined: family, education in the broad sense, work, and the influences of religion on the lives of the Maltese. The four aspects are examined in Malta and among Maltese living in New York City. The research was conducted in Malta and in New York City over a four-year period from January 1992 until January 1996. Ethnographic data is presented on two groups of Maltese: those who live in Malta and those who reside in New York City. It appears that most American Maltese arrive in New York, having left Malta, where one of the two official languages is English, where there is an economy with few natural resources, but where there is an excellent school system. The use of the Maltese language, the other official language in Malta besides English, can be used as a self-identifying characteristic not only in Malta, but among this extremely small population in New York City. Statistical analysis suggests that the arriving Maltese have greater earning potential as new New Yorkers than their new New Yorker coutterparts. Newcomers from Malta arrive as members of the middle-class, and achieve economic security within one generation. Three ideal types, or categories, of Maltese are distinguished as an analytical tool in the ethnographic tradition: immigrant (those pulled to New York City), emigrant (those pushed from Malta) and migrant (those coming for specific reasons but intending to return) type. Data are presented describing each. Analysis also show the fluidity of these types, expanding the possibilities from three types of Maltese who left Malta to come to New York City to at least six variations. The notion of return migration to Malta is both interesting and possible. The findings seem to indicate that the migration patterns of the Maltese people, today, share some similarities with other Europeans, particularly the Northern Europeans, to the extent that they appear to be assimilating in New York City rather fast and successfully (in gross economic and self evaluation terms) . Differences are also examined. Description: PH.D. Wed, 01 Jan 1997 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/123144 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z