Maltese literature and national consciousness during British Colonial rule 1800-1964

Abstract

The influence of British colonialism on the development of Maltese national consciousness was both positive and negative. It involved a positive relationship, namely a linguistic one between English and Maltese, which encouraged social rapport between the British colonizers and the Maltese indigenous inhabitants and the negative relationship between the sophisticated British culture and the uncultivated popular culture of the Maltese, which deteriorated into a violent psychological confrontation between the two highly disparate nationalities and traditions. In the first decades of the nineteenth century, an indigenous Maltese, literature had gradually emerged and sought recognition. [Excerpt]