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Rigu Bovingdon: Laurent Ropà.
Horizons Publications, 2015.

This text by Rigu Bovingdon provides the reader who is unaware of the existence of the Franco-Malto-Gozitan personality, Laurent Ropà, with the basic biographical and literary information necessary for one to formulate a good first impression of what this migrant writer actually stood for.

Bovingdon follows Ropà’s footsteps from his birthplace in  Xagħra, Gozo, to Bona in Algeria, up to Sarthe, France, where he matured into a writer of quality.

The author, himself a Malto-Australian migrant and thus openly self-identified with the travails that Ropà (and any migrant) goes through in life, pinpoints the biographical highlights of the poet.

He also lists the various literary works written by Ropà (all in French) and brings out the nostalgia that characterises them, that nostalgia that is typical of all those of us who leave their homeland in search of better pastures in the bigger world.

This book on Ropà serves also as a pretext for Bovingdon to publicise his theories on Maltese language use

This book on Ropà serves also as a pretext, or spur, for Bovingdon to publicise his theories on Maltese language use, a very topical subject nowadays. Bovingdon is in facvour of the absolute freedom of writers to express themselves in any way they feel, free from any rules or regulations that might be prescribed by language planners. To back up his thoughts on the matter, the author quotes Iris Murdoch, who states: “It is up to the artist to decide how she/he is to use words.”

I would say that, ever since nearly a century ago, Viktor Shlovsky and the other animators of the Russian formalist school came up with their theory on defamiliarisation, this has now become an accepted norm of literature. Creative writers are defined as such because they manage to create a language which departs from everyday use and norms.

But, what is valid for creative writers is, in my opinion, not valid at all for the practical use of language.  Non artistic language – the daily means of practical communication among normal human beings – cannot be a free for all.

Each one of us should not be free to decide how we are to use words. While prescriptive linguistic impositions, regulated by law, are not conducive to obtaining the desired results, I would certainly subscribe to the idea that – as regards the communicative use of language – there has to be a sense of direction. And this sense of direction has to be given by recognised experts in the field. This lack of sense of direction would, in my opinion, lead to linguistic anarchy.

As regards Ropà, Bovingdon highlights the fact that he was one of the first voices – if not the first – to appeal for the unity of all Maltese abroad. The concept of a global united community of Maltese abroad, which might be perceived as something quite natural today was quite a unique one in Ropa’s times. And Bovingdon does well to pay tribute to, and to highlight, the activity of the Franco-Gozitan’s work in trying to bring together the Maltese diaspora abroad of the 20th century.

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