The writing of history : a textual analysis of A.V. Laferla's 'British Malta'

Abstract

This work seeks to demonstrate that historical knowledge is not a neutral objective discourse, but it is effectively constructed. It sets to prove this by embarking on a modest project of closely scrutinising the two-volumed textbook, 'British Malta', of A.V. Laferla. Chapter 1 argues that the traditional model of History as a rediscovery of the past 'as it was' has now been superseded. It has been successfully challenged by developments in such disciplines as linguistics and philosophy, as well as by the work of Marxist, feminist and post-colonial historians. This chapter tries to historicise history itself The following chapter affirms the connection between the text and its 'worldliness'. It shows how history writing is influenced by the 'personal construct' of the historian Laferla. It also argues that historians are unable to escape the gravitational pull of presentism and thus historiography is seen as a culturally defined discourse of knowledge, implicated in the structures of society and the conventions of culture. Chapter 3 emphasises historiography as a literary artefact created by the historian, working within the linguistic conventions of his time. The 'narrative-form' is treated as a cultural fact. Chapter 4 locates the text in the power relations that embeds it. This chapter exposes the textbook's historical contingency and its ideological component, which are dictated by the specificity of colonial condition. The political context of imperial control and power from which this text emerged, has been investigated. This work attempts to make visible what is customarily invisible in a historical text, mainly the laws of its self-production.