This fair land
Subtitle: an anthology of Maltese literature
By: selected and edited by Charles Briffa
Series: Lesser Used Languages of Europe -- v.6; Lesser used languages of Europe -- v. 6.
Publisher: Francis Boutle Publishers
Published: 2014
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 525
ISBN-13: 9781903427873
Copyright date: 2014
Subjects: Maltese literature; Translations into English
Description: This Fair Land is a comprehensive collection of around 200 texts in Maltese accompanied by new translations into English. From the orally transmitted sayings of past centuries and the few surviving remnants of early written Maltese (the first poem in Maltese was composed in mid-fifteenth century) to the experiments and struggles for survival of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the achievments of writing in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This Fair Land explores the efforts of individual writers and offers a clear account of the wider historical atmosphere that shaped their written expression. Verse, fictional prose, drama, religious writing, historical and scientific texts, cultural expositions, journalism, show us the evolution of a language that for centuries was neglected except for the determination of ordinary uneducated people to keep it alive despite all ideological and political barriers. Throughout its evolution, Maltese {u2013} Europe{u2019}s only indigenous Semitic language {u2013} was shaped by the influence of various colonial powers and has absorbed elements of Arabic, Old Sicilian, Italian and English. -- From publisher's website.