Ir-riviżitazzjoni tar-rumanz Malti

Abstract

This dissertation is predominantly concerned with redressing the balance in favour of the Maltese novel when put in a wider context, by analyzing Frans Sammut’s Il-Holma Maltija and Alfred Sant’s La bidu la tmiem (1599) in terms of their attempt to introduce the Postmodern novel to Maltese literature. Given the novelty of the task the introductory chapter has a specific purpose: to start preparing ground to justify the need of revisiting the conventions applied both by historians and novelists. The second chapter considers the postmodernity of the texts in the light of the epistemological crisis which it is claimed form an essential part of the literary movement. In an in-depth dissection of both texts, light is shed upon the problematization of the ontological status of reality as depicted in the novels. The third and fourth chapters take as their major focus the contributions achieved by both novelists individually in terms of the revisiting of Maltese conventional modes of interpreting reality. The third chapter interprets Sant’s novel in the light of Michel Foucault’s archaeological model, intended to revisit the traditional linear way applied to interpret reality. In the analysis, focus is laid on how Sant manages to apply Foucault's model throughout the whole novel mainly by dissolving the physical backround and the portrayal of certain key characters. The fourth chapter analyses Sammut’s attempt to reinterpret the mimetic mode which is applied by both historians and critics. In the process, the problem which Sammut’s autobiographical form raises in the light of poststructural assumptions is dealt with accordingly. The conclusion examines the possibility of considering the two novels as paradigm texts to which present and future novels could be referred to. In this sense, the achievements and limitations of both novelists serve as an indication of the path the Maltese novel could follow in order for the genre to develop. Significantly, what such an analysis reveals ultimately is how crucial Sammut and Sant have been to the most recent developments in Maltese fiction.