Translating Ireland

"Translating Ireland explores centuries of translation activity during which the languages, cultures and literatures of Ireland have been affected by the work of Irish translators in Ireland and elsewhere. Translation in Ireland has functioned as a weapon of political propaganda, an agent of linguistic reform, and a catalyst for cultural renewal and yet the activity of translators during often controversial circumstances has remained unacknowledged." "In this pioneering study Michael Cronin examines the widespread translation activity in Ireland in the Middle Ages and argues for a re-evaluation of the work of translators from that period. He then examines the central role of translation in the political and cultural upheaval of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, particularly the theoretical responses of translators to changing political conditions. Antiquarianism, the Celtic Revival and emergent nationalism in the nineteenth century are all bound up with the act of translation and Translating Ireland analyses the tensions and competing cultural allegiances of translators in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Literary revival in both English and Irish looked to translation as a source of a creative energy and the new state saw translation as both necessary and desirable. There is an analysis of the fortunes of translation in Ireland in the twentieth century, both as pragmatic activity in an officially bilingual state and as a way of opening the languages and literatures of Ireland to the literatures and cultural experiences of other peoples." "Translating Ireland examines what happens in the contact zone between languages and how translation affects both the development of language and literature and the construction of identity. In a country that has witnessed radical changes in language use over the centuries, translation has become an important element in political, linguistic and cultural self-knowledge."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This book provides an in-depth study of translation and translators in nineteenth-century Ireland, using translation history to widen our understanding of cultural exchange in the period. It paints a new picture of a transnational Ireland in contact with Europe, offering fresh perspectives on the historical, political and cultural debates of the era. Employing contemporary translation theories and applying them to Ireland’s socio-historical past, the author offers novel insights on a large range of disciplines relating to the country, such as religion, gender, authorship and nationalism. She maps out new ways of understanding the impact of translation in society and re-examines assumptions about the place of language and Europe in nineteenth-century Ireland. By focusing on a period of significant linguistic and societal change, she questions the creative, conflictual and hegemonic energies unleashed by translations. This book will therefore be of interest to those working in Translation Studies, Irish Studies, History, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies.

The premise of this volume is a question: What can the concept of minority bring to the practice and study of translation? Minority is understood here to mean a cultural or political position that is subordinate, whether the social context that so defines it is local, national or global. This position is occupied by languages and literatures that lack prestige or authority, the non-standard and the non-canonical, what is not spoken or read much by a hegemonic culture. Yet minorities also include the nations and social groups that are affiliated with these languages and literatures, the politically weak or underrepresented, the colonized and the disenfranchised, the exploited and the stigmatized. Translation today is itself a minor use of language, a lesser art, an invisible craft that commands less cultural capital and fewer legal privileges than original composition. Yet the focus in this collection is not on what translators worldwide have in common but on the distinctive forms that translating takes when it is done by or on behalf of minorities. The articles in this volume present a variety of case studies that illuminate the linguistic and cultural problems posed by such translating, as well as the economic and political agendas it has served. Together, these pieces show that the concept of minority is worth exploring because it inspires innovation in translation practice and research. Minor cultures are coincident with new translation strategies, new translation theories, and new syntheses of the diverse methodologies that constitute the discipline of translation studies.

Both in the sheer breadth and in the detail of their coverage the essays in these two volumes challenge hegemonic thinking on the subject of translation. Engaging throughout with issues of representation in a postmodern and postcolonial world, Translating Others investigates the complex processes of projection, recognition, displacement and 'othering' effected not only by translation practices but also by translation studies as developed in the West. At the same time, the volumes document the increasing awareness the the world is peopled by others who also translate, often in ways radically different from and hitherto largely ignored by the modes of translating conceptualized in Western discourses. The languages covered in individual contributions include Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Rajasthani, Somali, Swahili, Tamil, Tibetan and Turkish as well as the Europhone literatures of Africa, the tongues of medieval Europe, and some major languages of Egypt's five thousand year history. Neighbouring disciplines invoked include anthropology, semiotics, museum and folklore studies, librarianship and the history of writing systems. Contributors to Volume 2: Paul Bandia, Red Chan, Sukanta Chaudhuri, Annmarie Drury, Ruth Evans, Fabrizio Ferrari, Daniel Gallimore, Hephzibah Israel, John Tszpang Lai, Kenneth Liu-Szu-han, Ibrahim Muhawi, Martin Orwin, Carol O'Sullivan, Saliha Parker, Stephen Quirke and Kate Sturge.

This work is the first book-length treatment on translation policy. Nearly everywhere in the world, populations are multilingual and mobile; consequently, language policies developed by the authorities must include choices about the use or non-use of translation. This book recognizes that these choices (or the absence thereof) become policies of their own in terms of translation. It builds upon the work of scholars in the fields of translation studies and language planning and policy in order to develop a new theoretical perspective on translation policy. In essence, the book proposes that translation policy can be understood as the management, practice, and beliefs surrounding the use of translation. The book deals with these issues under European and international law and then explores such management, practice, and beliefs in the UK, as a case study. Ultimately, the reader can find a fuller appreciation of both the importance and complexity of translation policy.

Translation and Stylistic Variation: Dialect and Heteroglossia in Northern Irish Poetic Translation considers the ways in which translators use stylistic variation, analysing the works of three Northern Irish poet-translators to look at how, in this variety, the translation process becomes a creative act by which translators can explore their own linguistic and cultural heritage. The volume offers a holistic portrait of the use of linguistic variety – dialect and heteroglossia – in the literary translations of Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, and Tom Paulin, shedding light on the translators’ choices but also readers’ experiences of them. Drawing on work from cognitive stylistics, Gibson reflects on how and why translators choose to add linguistic variety and how these choices can often be traced back to their socio-cultural context. The book not only extends existing scholarship on Irish-English literary translation to examine issues unique to Northern Ireland but also raises broader questions about translation in locations where language choice is fraught and political. The volume makes the case for giving increased consideration to the role of the individual translator, both for insights into personal choices and a more nuanced understanding of contemporary literary translation practices, in Ireland and beyond. This book will be of interest to scholars working in translation studies, literary studies and Irish studies.

The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Activism provides an accessible, diverse and ground-breaking overview of literary, cultural, and political translation across a range of activist contexts. As the first extended collection to offer perspectives on translation and activism from a global perspective, this handbook includes case studies and histories of oppressed and marginalised people from over twenty different languages. The contributions will make visible the role of translation in promoting and enabling social change, in promoting equality, in fighting discrimination, in supporting human rights, and in challenging autocracy and injustice across the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, East Asia, the US and Europe. With a substantial introduction, thirty-one chapters, and an extensive bibliography, this Handbook is an indispensable resource for all activists, translators, students and researchers of translation and activism within translation and interpreting studies.

This ground-breaking analysis of the cultural trajectory of England's first colony constitutes a major contribution to postcolonial studies, offering a template relevant to most cultures emerging from colonialism. At the same time, these Irish case studies become the means of interrogating contemporary theories of translation. Moving authoritatively between literary theory and linguistics, philosophy and cultural studies, anthropology and systems theory, the author provides a model for a much needed integrated approach to translation theory and practice. In the process, the work of a number of important literary translators is scrutinized, including such eminent and disparate figures as Standishn O'Grady, Augusta Gregory and Thomas Kinsella. The interdependence of the Irish translation movement and the work of the great 20th century writers of Ireland - including Yeats and Joyce - becomes clear, expressed for example in the symbiotic relationship that marks their approach to Irish formalism. Translation in a Postcolonial Context is essential reading for anyone interested in translation theory and practice, postcolonial studies, and Irish literature during the 19th and 20th centuries.