Mario Aquilina (right) will today deliver a public lecture on ‘The review: History, form and function’ (Ir-Riċensjoni letterarja: Storja, forma u funzjoni) at the University of Malta.
This lecture, which will be the first in a new series organised by the Department of Maltese of the Faculty of Arts, called It-taħditiet tad-Diploma fil-Letteratura Maltija, will focus on the literary or critical review, i.e., that form of writing used to provide critical evaluations of books, plays and other literary forms.
In the first part of the lecture, Aquilina will present some key ideas and concepts. The second part of the session will take the form of a short workshop for attendees, including students reading for the Diploma in Maltese Literature.
Aquilina will talk about the history of the review and the different ways in which this has been published over the centuries, especially in the context of English literature. He will then explore the effects of the new media on contemporary review writing, especially from the perspective of how the internet provides new challenges and opportunities for the writing and circulation of the form.
The second part will be a short workshop in which the participants will take a closer look at the form of the review. Examples will be used to analyse the structures, styles and aims of different reviews, as well as to observe the different levels of thinking required in review writing.
Aquilina is a lecturer in the Department of English at the University, where he teaches on the art of the essay, rhetoric, style, electronic literature, literary theory and cultural studies.
His research on literature and language has been published in edited books and academic journals, such as Oxford Literary Review, Cahiers Élisabéthains, CounterText, Electronic Book Review, and Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory. His first monograph, The Event of Style in Literature, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014.
The lecture is being held today at the Faculty of Arts Library at the University of Malta at 6pm. Entrance is free and everyone is invited to attend.