Portrait : Gwann Mamo

Abstract

Gwann Mamo (1886 - 1941), born at Luqa, exploits to the full his immediate environment and falls in love with it even when he criticizes its deficiencies. As a literary writer, however, he succeeds in transcending the limits of direct observation in order to gain wider relevance, and possibly to transform a social enquiry into a parable of the perennial Maltese condition . It can be said that his only literary work, Ulied in-Nanna Venut fl-Amerka (1930), is unique in the whole of Maltese narrative tradition . He has the courage to look at contemporary society in the face, pointing out its serious shortcomings and indicating a positive solution. It was the social condition of his times which made him write the novel, the endproduct of long years of critical observation . It stems from a profound anxiety in favour of the workers and from his desire to make them conscious of their basic rights and central role in society.