Ars & Humanitas 

Abstract: Being is given many designations in Hölderlin’s poetry, but we will focus on the question of Being as the holy. Being as the holy bespeaks the poet in a message to which he responds by articulating the address in words. Following Heidegger’s thought that poetry (poiesis) is the essence of language and of all arts, and juxtaposing it with Wittgenstein’s view of language, we will find out that to trace the mystery of language back to its origin means placing ourselves outside of the world, passing thus into the realm of silence. Drawing an analogy between Hölderlin’s idea of the holy as the immediate and Wittgenstein’s conception of the mystical, my thesis assumes that language is precisely what poetry cannot name.

Abstract: Moral ethics which developed and grew only to become stronger and clearer, during and after World War II is a complex and resourceful subject which can be found in the work from “The Good Man from Cologne” – Heinrich Böll. Even at first glance, Böll has a rather clear message that he sends to his readers, whether he writes from experience or his state of mind (one affected by the other): War is not to be glorified. There is not one aspect of the war that can or should be considered as pride or heroism, for no one participating (in example – honoring a soldier with a piece of metal, which is in war used to kill and destroy). Then, why write about war? Because no one should ever forget it. All the suffering and victims should be presented simply – as they were, to warn and clarify the readers. The clarification meant for Böll to name the ones that let this kind of horror to take place, like organizations that collaborated with the Nazis for their own interests. In his works, he shows how the characters – uneducated and the intellectuals – deal with guilt even years after the war has ended – every simple character for himself, as an individual. Therefore, he shows his compassion for the simple men but underlines his hostility towards organizations. Not only have Germans had to live with their guilt, but also with a vast amount of rubble – in their minds, souls, but also in their physical world. That is why Böll holds onto “Rubble Literature” for a long period after the war. The importance of the precise depiction of war shows how strongly Böll committed in his effort to shine the light only on the real side of war. His determination to fight for the “weak” that were by the mainstream defined as “waste” shows high levels of his morality and ethics. He enjoys a society full of individuals, whose life conditions vary from case to case, and therefore, vary in their (inter)actions towards life, and is their voice in the constant fight for human and civil rights.

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the history and geographies of the main occupants of Malta and then explores the changing nature of foreign residents in the islands The study uses literature to outline the historical occupation of the islands and the national Censuses of Population and Housing to provide a spatio-temporal analysis of immigrants and expatriate residents in the islands The paper aims to shed some light on the history and geographies of immigration in Malta and contribute to the current discussions on security, boundaries and immigration in the Mediterranean Region