On Tuesday 6 December 2016, at 1800hrs, the folklorist Ġużi Gatt is giving a public talk in Maltese in the main Library of the University of Malta in Tal-Qroqq about his grandmother's world view. Entrance is free and everyone is welcome to attend and take part in the discussion.
This is the fifth talk in a series on Maltese Oral Traditions organized by the Department of Maltese at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Malta. The first four talks were by Prof. Mourad Yelles from Inalco in Paris, Yanika Schembri Fava, Dr Toni Sant, and Marlene Mifsud Chircop. Klabb Kotba Maltin is supporting this project by giving a book voucher to the speakers.
Ġużi Gatt is the Secretary General of the Malta Folklore Society, and the editor of the Society's annual publication, L-Imnara. He is the author of two volumes entitled Qiegħda fil-Ponta ta' Lsieni, both published by Klabb Kotba Maltin. He has translated various plays into Maltese, including Bertold Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, Friedrich Durrenmatt's The Visit, and Harold Pinter's The Homecoming and The Caretaker. He has done research about traditional Maltese musical instruments and has been involved in their reconstruction. His main area of interest is local folklore and early medieval studies.
Every one of us has a knack for forming a framework of ideas and beliefs through which we observe and interpret the world around us and interact with it. One’s level of education, the knowledge and beliefs that society inculcates in the mind of its members, together with the experiences one picks up in life, and the very language that one speaks, all contribute to one’s perception of the world. How did the people of previous generations view the world? One cannot generalize, so Ġużi Gatt will try to describe what he believes to be his grandmother’s world view, based on what he used to hear her say when she was alive – God bless her soul.
More information about this talk by Ġużi Gatt and about the Oral Traditions research project is available on Facebook and on the website. The Department of Maltese can be contacted by writing to malti.arts@um.edu.mt