Incongruity and scale : the challenge of discernment in Maltese literature

Abstract

The case of the Maltese editor Mark Camilleri and writer Alex Vella Gera, accused of distributing obscene or pornographic material and undermining public morals following publication of the short story ‘Li tkisser sewwi’ in the student newspaper Ir-Realtà, distributed on the University of Malta campus and in Sixth Form colleges in Autumn 2009, has been amply commented. I do not wish to assess the various positions struck. (For an appraisal from the perspective of literary criticism, see Grima, 2011). This article is not primarily about the case. The Ir-Realtá debate does give me my cue, however, when drawing attention to one consideration that appears to have been largely overlooked. It prompts the further comments I would like to make about Maltese literature and the conditions of peripherality in which—sometimes inevitably, sometimes despite their best efforts, and sometimes wilfully - Maltese writers operate.