Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1468438
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 22 MAY 2022 6 CULTURE MUŻA and Għar Dalam obtain Quality Assured Seal GĦAR Dalam and MUŻA, the National Art Museum, have been awarded the Malta Tourism Authority's Quality Assured Seal in recognition of the high standards achieved in the experience offered to visitors. THIS brings to ten the total of Heritage Malta sites that have received this prestigious rec- ognition up to now. The other sites are Fort St Angelo, Fort St Elmo, the National Mu- seum of Archaeology, Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, the Tarx- ien Temples, the Ħal Saf lieni Hypogeum, St Paul's Cata- combs, and Ġgantija. The Quality Assured (QA) Seal is a Malta Tourism Au- thority scheme intended to assist visitors in making an in- formed choice when consider- ing which attractions to visit. At the same time, the scheme helps quality attractions to re- tain a competitive edge while the sector is encouraged to achieve a high level of quality through the creation of bench- marks. In order to receive the Quality Assured Seal, sites must satisfy an established set of criteria. These include qual- ity of content, quality of pres- entation and interpretation, value for money, quality of promotion, accessibility, lay- out and comfort, conservation and security, quality of cater- ing, quality of retail, addition- al services, staff and quality of service provision, cleanliness and physical condition, quality of toilet facilities, and sustain- able development.Heritage Malta's Chief Executive Of- ficer, Noel Zammit, expressed his satisfaction that two more sites have received the Quality Assured Seal and said that this achievement bears witness to the national cultural agency's commitment to focus on visi- tors' wishes. Book review Mur Gibek by Irene Chias, translated by Mark Vella EZERCIZI di Sevizia e Seduzione (Ezercizi) was published by Mon- dadori in 2013, after Irene Chias had debuted in 2010 with Sono Ateo e ti Amo, published by Elli- ot, a small-to-medium publishing house in Rome: this debut nov- el was chosen as one of the best six literary debuts of that year by the consortium scrittorincittà, associated with the Scuola Hold- en writing school (of Alessandro Baricco fame). In 2014, Ezercizi, Chias' second novel, won both the Premio Mondello Opera Italiana and the Premio Mondello Gio- vani, which testimonies to the fact that the novel's publishing appeal also extended to a young adult (YA) audience (in this case seventeen-year olds, quarta supe- riore –fourth year of high school) Well before the rise of the #metoo movement in 2017, this novel raises the issue of the per- ception of sexual violence against women. The fact that violence against women is accepted and 'normalised' becomes blatant as soon as the author turns the nar- rative tables, and portrays a male victim of this gender violence, and therefore extremely different reactions and opinions towards this violence arise in the reader. In a clever show of meta- and in- tertextual role-reversal, the book's main character, Ignazia, decides to rewrite rape scenes in fiction- al narrative, amongst which the Old Testament (Judges 19) and A Clockwork Orange, inverting the gender of the persons involved. Living in a sexist routine, which in Italy, as well as in Malta is often not even properly recognised as such, Ignazia takes action. Twenty years after the release of American Psycho, an answer to the Patrick Bateman atrocities presents itself. But it is an answer far removed from Ellis' character's actions, since Ignazia Gugliario is a wom- an, is not American, and, above all, is not a psycho. After establish- ing how normal violence on wom- en is perceived, and how absurd, implausible and unacceptable sexual violence on men is, Ignazia decides to take responsibility and strives to balance this state of af- fairs. The protagonist wages a war against triviality, abducts deplora- ble men and forces them to listen to her pages, terrorising them in the process. Reversing gender roles in her fiction, Ignazia expos- es the paradoxical, hidden accept- ance of sexual violence against women. This book has been con- sidered for translation in the USA, and the first four chapters were translated into English, and pub- lished on Penn State University's online magazine, Trafika Europe. Such a text is rare in the Mal- tese publishing panorama, both in terms of style and theme. On the one hand, it subverts a normalized and hegemonic 'commonsensical' worldview, by ironically rewriting classic texts and by dipping in vari- ous literary works concerned with sexual relations and politics; on the other hand, its theme not only predated the worldwide spread of the #metoo movement, but is also an actual theme for contemporary Maltese society as it grapples with gradually revealing its underbelly of domestic violence and gener- alised violence, physical and be- yond, against women. It is therefore a novel that, de- spite its evident value, might have challenges in penetrating the local market, most probably requiring targeted publicity, and might also be challenging for the standard Maltese reader. Nevertheless, it can potentially widen reading and writing horizons alike in the Mal- tese language, especially if sup- ported by a well-crafted contem- porary translation that balances the nature of the original with a linguistic rendition that does not alienate potential readers. While translation into Maltese of different types of texts and publications is on the rise, even through funding possibilities, the majority are from English, and sales potential and marketability are enhanced mostly when the original author or publication is within the immediate cultural ho- rizon of the typical reader (an ex- ample could be the recent transla- tion of Mala Youzafsai's memoir, or else translations of classic au- thors, even from languages other than English, such as the cases of Camus and Proust, etc.). Italian literary publications (except some by Merlin) have not been tapped into that much in the Maltese market: we believe that a suitable translation of such a text could al- so have the potential of being the ideal bridge between two cultural experiences that are nearer than one would expect, thus opening a new and hitherto undiscovered cultural horizon for the Maltese reader which can reveal striking similarities. Funding is therefore not only essential for the actual materialization of the translation and the final publication in such a panorama as described above, but could also be useful for publici- ty purposes whereby the topical subject-matter could be marketed in such a way to create targeted interest in the specific book. This type of novel has to conceived as somewhere in between, maybe the commercially ideal midpoint, between classics or bestsellers in translation on one end, and obscure or niche or highly-spe- cialised works on the other. The publication by Mondadori and the nationwide distribution in all major Italian book outlets (togeth- er with the marketing campaign which yielded reviews in impor- tant newspapers and magazines, as can be seen in the press pack attached) illustrates the novel's potential for sales and readership, but also highlights what chal- lenges would ensue should this be placed in the Maltese market without the buoyancy afforded by funding. The novel may also be consid- ered as of cultural and education- al importance, as can be seen by its award of a YA category prize after being read by high school students, and by its potential to be used as a text for highlighting the social problem discussed in an alternative way to typical dogmat- ic or politicized discourse. The novel's ironic and humorous bent, together with its biting satire and successful role-reversal and me- ta-literary technique, could be ex- ploited in diverse ways to present different audiences with a fresh and alternative take on the theme, obviously beyond the pleasure of reading the novel for reading's sake.