The role of literature in the education of adults : an analysis of selected Maltese novels

Abstract

This dissertation explores the function of literature as an adult education instrument. It examines literature’s potential to empower, its ability to nurture critical consciousness (Freire 1970/1993) and its capacity to act as an emancipatory tool, a catalyst for change and a promoter of inner and outer freedom. It shows how literature can provoke people to reflect and to act, and in so doing, function as an effective change agent within society. Through the analysis of eight selected Maltese novels, written by a group of Maltese authors in the native language during the British colonial period up to the first half of the twentieth century, this study demonstrates how this was in fact the case with Maltese literature in the colonial context of Malta. These Maltese authors saw in literature a significant educational potential and used it as an instrument to contest hegemony, in times when the Maltese people were dominated and oppressed by a foreign military power. This study analyses the educational potential of these works of Maltese literature and reveals how these were used to educate the Maltese people.