Mikiel Anton Vassalli and Manwel Dimech are today considered national heros in Malta’s collective imagination, yet they both died lonely deaths and were forgotten for a long time.
At a seminar on Thursday at 6.30pm, Henry Franz Gauci will speak about how Vassalli and Dimech came to be recognised as popular personalities after a long period in limbo, and who was behind this process and its success.
Gauci will analyse how ‘world heros’ or exemplary personalities come to enjoy popularity and popular devotion, how their heroism is recognised and whether it is a natural or an imposed process.
The speaker will draw on original research he carried out for his dissertation at the University of Malta’s Institute of Maltese Studies.
The seminar, entitled Eroj tal-poplu? Kif jilħaq eroj, studju fuq Mikiel Anton Vassalli u Manwel Dimech, will be held at the National Library, 36, Old Treasury Street, Valletta, and will be introduced by institute director Prof. Henry Frendo.
This is the second in the series of public lectures organised by the institute about various aspects of the Maltese culture and identity.