'Din il-ġrajja qanqlitilhom kurżita` kbira wisq' : stħarriġ kritiku tar-rumanzi ta' avventura ta' Trevor Żahra

Abstract

This critical study focuses on the adventure novels Trevor Zahra wrote between 1971 and 1995. Even if in his early experimentation phase, the novels had great success and are still popular up to this day. Indeed this series of adventures has undergone the publishing of the third edition. Zahra kept the stories unchanged but modified the illustrations, where he experimented with different techniques, keeping up with technology and adjusting accordingly the shape, font, and covers of the novels. This critical study is divided in two: the first eight novels and the last novel written. The first eight adventure stories revolve mostly on Blyton's style and fit with the main conventions of adventure stories' characteristics. In all eight novels there is the idea of a mystery and adventure that takes place through a quest in an environment away from the protagonists' home. All the adventures revolve around the children's collaborative team spirit, which together with the aid of adults, reveals the mystery towards the end of the novel. The Maltese context transpires in all the novels. This is mainly reflected in the way the family is portrayed, and through the defined gender stereotypes that are rigidly attributed to different sexes. On the other hand, in the ninth novel of this series, Fuklar Qadim u Bnadar Imcarrta, Zahra has moved radically away from this formula, and seemed to adopt techniques and styles more similar to magic realism.