The Canon in the Maltese Context

Faculty of Arts, Literature and Comparison Research Seminar Series
Round table

Works in Search of a Literature | The Canon in the Maltese Context

Monday 23rd April 2012, Arts Lecture Theatre, 6.30pm

The next session of the Literature and Comparison Seminar Series will take place on the 23rd April 2012 in the Arts Lecture Theatre of the University of Malta at 6.30pm.

On this occasion, the Seminar will take the form of a round table discussion — a format which was attempted in previous meetings of Literature and Comparison and proved a success.

Professor Arnold Cassola, Dr Adrian Grima, and Dr Bernard Micallef will be the participants of a round table discussion on the fate of the literary work within the presumed context of a Maltese literature, a concept that will be examined in terms of Maltese literary works that could not be promoted, let alone read and critically appraised, without a cultural and critical infrastructure.

The round table conference starts off with a short paper by Dr Adrian Grima arguing this issue, and concluding that, rather than speak of a ‘Maltese literature’, one would be more correct to speak of literary works in search of a collective identity and literary organisation. You can read Dr Grima’s paper, “Works in Search of a Literature,” here (starts on p. 42).

Interventions by Professor Arnold Cassola on what has traditionally constituted the canon in the Maltese literary mindset, and by Dr Bernard Micallef on the anxiety of influence and interpretive communities in Maltese poetry, will expand upon the fundamental issue of literary works in search of a literature.

Prof. Cassola, Dr Grima and Dr Micallef lecture in the Department of Maltese.
Prof. Cassola’s research interests include comparative literature, Maltese-Italian comparative studies, and the history of the Maltese language.

Dr Grima’s research interests include Maltese and Mediterranean literature, the Maltese national imaginary and contemporary Maltese literature.

Dr Micallef’s research interests include literary theory (particularly hermeneutics and reader response theories), the history of genre and movement in Maltese literature and phenomenology in literature.

The round table will be chaired by Prof. Ivan Callus.