Özet:

Spoken and written languages have showed a great variety as a reflection of the fact that Malta has hosted different civilizations throughout the history. Maltese, a member of a Semitic language family, consists of Arabic and Italian words and is written in Latin letters. It has been difficult for this language to acquire the most appropriate alphabet as it combines elements from two different language families. Therefore, it was possible for Maltese to have a standard orthography in the early 20th century and use of it as a literary language has become widespread since this century. However, it has been possible to come up with a small number of works written in Maltese despite some inconsistencies found in their written forms. The Il-Kantilena of Pietru Caxaro, which is considered to have been written in the 15th century, is accepted as the first Maltese literary text. It is seen that poetry had been the most dominant genre in Maltese literature until the 18th century, and they had been usually written by ecclesiastics such as priests. The first works in prose type seen in this century were sermons and religious texts. The theme of immigration and the image of Muslims or Turks were reflected predominantly in Maltese literature particularly starting from the 19th to the early 20th centuries. The effects of Italian literature are usually obvious in the works of Maltese literature. In this article, the general outline of the history of Maltese literature will be briefly presented, and then the Maltese literary works will be discussed. The people accepted as the cornerstones of the period between the 15th and the 21st centuries, their works, the world literatures that they were influenced by, and the methods they followed will be discussed under three main titles: The first works, The Imitation period (18th and 19th centuries) and From the 20th century to the present.

Anahtar Kelimeler: