• ‘Isn’t it pretty to think so?’ : hope, desire and the dread of inevitable despair in Hemingway’s ‘The sun also rises’ 

  Scerri, Luke (University of Malta, 2017)

  The aim of this dissertation is to approach Ernest Hemingway‘s The Sun Also Rises with a rather broad cultural point of view with the intention of attempting to understand the polarizing ideas of hope and despair and how ...
• A voice of empowerment : a study on the portrayal of female characters in the literary works of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

  Camenzuli, Martina (University of Malta, 2017)

  This dissertation is based on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s presentation of African women, analysing the ways in which her characters go from oppressed women (Chapter 1) to female icons of independence and self-assurance ...
• Romantic orientalism : a study on the representation of the Orient in selected poetry of Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley 

  Debono, Stephanie (University of Malta, 2017)

  The first chapter consists of an introduction to the notion of Orientalism within the context of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and a discussion of the social and political context within which Orientalism rose ...
• The philosophical world-view of Thomas Hardy : existential and deterministic universes in ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ and ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ 

  Spiteri, Elizabeth-Anne (University of Malta, 2017)

  This dissertation explores two novels by Thomas Hardy, through the philosophical lenses of Existentialism and Determinism. Written seventeen years apart, Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) and Tess of the D’Urbervilles ...
• “A beauty of the spirit” : a study of the significance of spirituality in Leslie Marmon Silko’s ‘Ceremony, Almanac of the Dead’, and ‘Gardens in the Dunes’ 

  Vella, Jana (University of Malta, 2017)

  Kenneth M. Roemer claims that up until the 1960s, ‘academics specializing in Native literatures were practically non-existent’, and that it is only of late that this literary branch has been garnering attention. My ...
• The gypsy as ‘other’ in ‘The mill on the floss’ by George Eliot, ‘The scholar gipsy’ by Matthew Arnold, and ‘The virgin and the gipsy’ by D. H. Lawrence 

  Xuereb, Giulia Elena (University of Malta, 2017)

  This dissertation will analyse the way society places the Gypsy in a position of ‘otherness’, as alien and opposite to itself, with a particular focus on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Britain. After ...
• The language question in Africa literature : orature across three generations of writers 

  Baker, Charlotte (University of Malta, 2017)

  This dissertation will be dealing with the language question in Africa, with a special focus on orality and identity in the works of both Chinua Achebe and Tsitsi Dangaremgba. After defining the history of Africa with ...
• Narrative seduction and the reader’s sympathy in ‘Lolita’ and ‘One flew over the cuckoo’s nest’ 

  Cutajar, Marta Anne (University of Malta, 2017)

  This dissertation will deal with narrative seduction and the effect of narrative technique on the reader in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It will analyse the way in which the ...
• Children and digital literacy : the importance of digital platforms in literature 

  Peltier, Caroline (University of Malta, 2017)

  This dissertation explores various interactive forms of multimedia in relation to literacy acquisition by looking at three different digital platforms, namely Hangart, Mr Glue Stories and Storybird. The analysis of these ...
• Apocalypticism in the ‘Final fantasy’ videogame franchise 

  Brincat, Francesca (University of Malta, 2017)

  The aim of this dissertation is to explore the ways in which the apocalypse has been conceived throughout history, both as part of religious beliefs and mythology as well as in different types of art forms. I will be ...
• “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself” : a study on the distinctiveness of Virginia Woolf’s feminism 

  Buhagiar, Jessica (University of Malta, 2017)

  Virginia Woolf was born in the late nineteenth century to Leslie Stephen; an intellectual man of strong Victorian morals. She lived at a time when the England she knew was shifting to a new, Modern age. At the same time, ...
• Realism in Jane Austen and Charles Dickens : parallelisms, similarities and differences : a study of selected works 

  Cassar, Audrey Anne (University of Malta, 2017)

  This dissertation explores the ways in which two nineteenth century writers, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, approach realism. While both writers clearly criticise their societies, their approach is markedly different. ...
• Beyond the self : Sylvia Plath and gender in the 1950s and 1960s 

  Pollacco, Julia (University of Malta, 2017)

  The aim of this dissertation is to show that although Sylvia Plath’s works are inspired by her personal life, they cannot be classified as solely confessional. Plath does have a few personal works with regards to gender, ...
• Objectivism replayed : a comparative reading of ‘Bioshock’ and Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas shrugged’ 

  Portanier, Paul (University of Malta, 2017)

  This dissertation investigates how Ayn Rand’s 'Atlas Shrugged' and her philosophy known as Objectivism is both adapted and criticised in the videogame Bioshock (2007), with particular care and attention given towards how ...
• Speech and thought in Virginia Woolf’s stream of consciousness technique : a cognitive stylistic analysis through narrative comprehension 

  Pace, Sophie (University of Malta, 2017)

  This dissertation seeks to identify the difficulties the reader encounters during the reading process while engaging with a novel written in the stream of consciousness narrative style. Normally, when the stream of ...
• Victorian aestheticism and decadence in Oscar Wilde’s ‘The picture of Dorian Gray’ 

  Cauchi, Glenn (University of Malta, 2017)

  The purpose of this dissertation is to make the reader aware of both aestheticism and decadence as two equally important artistic movements in the late Victorian era, most notably, at the fin-de-siècle. It will also shed ...
• Dualism in First World War poetry : exploring the pro-war and anti-war debate 

  Fenech, Svetlana (University of Malta, 2017)

  This dissertation will look at First World War poetry and how poetry can serve different functions, especially in such a time. While some poets use poetry to express their feelings and emotions, others use it as a tool ...
• How technology is affecting English language acquisition and English language use in Maltese children : a sociolinguistic study 

  Apap, Claire (University of Malta, 2017)

  Even though the two official languages in Malta are Maltese and English, it is the Maltese language which is spoken in the majority of Maltese homes. Therefore, exposure to English is most likely to be through devices such ...
• Elements of the mythical and the political in comic books 

  Borg, Charlene (University of Malta, 2017)

  This dissertation focuses on Roland Barthes's concept of the opposing forces of the mythical and the political and how these can be found in comic books. According to Barthes, myth is the discourse which makes everything ...
• 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' : the natural world in Shakespeare's poetry 

  Francalanza, Julian (University of Malta, 2017)

  This dissertation seeks to explore the extent of the significance of the element of nature within Shakespeare's non-dramatic poetry. While the importance of the natural world has been identified and illustrated by various ...

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