History, Language and Post-colonial Issues in Brian Friel’s Translations :: Essays Papers

History, Language and Post-compound Issues in Brian Friels TranslationsOwen Back to first principles. What atomic number 18 we trying to do? Yolland Good question.Owen We are trying to denominate and at the same time describe . . . Dun na nGall or Donegal? Muineachain or Monaghan? Same place, same difference? As Owen says about his own cognomenOwen - Roland - what the hell. Its only a name.( Translations )For the student of post-colonial literature, what transpires in Friels get as the British army proceed to map this particular coigne of the empire is that like language itself, it is not so much the name and the changing of names but what that signifies and what those names signify in a particular context, coming from a particular mouth. A simple post-colonial class period could view such events as a violation of geographic shoes Imperialism after all is an act of geographical violence through which virtually every space in the world is explored, charted, and finally brought under control. (Said, 10), and an appropriation and subversion of identity. What makes Friels play so rich is the way his talks plays with the subtle antinomies and nuances of the situation. Can one identify a coherent olympian project, a desire to exterminate subversive Gaelic or is it the fateful pragmatic impulse of commerce and laissez-faire economics? The practicalities of day-to-day introduction are clear in Maires desire to learn side of meat so she can work in America. Owen exemplifies engagement with the colonial effect in contrast to his brother, Manus. However, when the play has taken its tragic felon it is Owen who suffers ignominy at the command of Lancey who orders him, Do your job - translate. (Act 3)The translations acquire the barbed taste of complicity, betrayal and shame in Owens mouth. Owen also serves, potentially, as mimic-man in his role as servant of the empire - one who, . . .simultaneously reinforces colonial authority and disturbs it.(Sharpe) His final exit, to find Doalty - be it to help him or delay him - as a Yeatsian man of action, potentiates this aspect of the metaphysical type. His blend of pragmatism and willingness to engage mark him as, in Saidian terms, a potentially liberating force. Manus in this binarism represents Saids first stage of Nationalism.Jose Rabasa, in Allegories of Atlas, discusses the significance of the map in colonial and post-colonial contexts. Functioning as a mirror of the world it offers a conception of a existence, .