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[Abstract]
Brian Friel's Translations (1980) demonstrates the role of language in combating British colonialism. The present study examines how the writer formulates a new sense of national identity in the audience who despise the replacement of the Gaelic names targeted by the English. The play's imaginary communities vary in their interpretation of the English campaign of nomination because there are differences among the Irish in their national sympathies. Thus, Foucault's panopticion can be relevant in analyzing the play's thematic use of names and what they culturally impart to the Irish audience at a historical juncture in the redefinition of Irish nationalism.
[Keywords] Friel; translations; Irish; drama; modern; British; cultural studies
In Irish literature of the twentieth century, the national and cultural struggles of Ireland influence both the literature and the criticism. Even though Irish national literature is similar to other national literatures, the intensity of the political themes is particularly noticeable in the dramatic work of Irish playwrights. The universality of using literature as a means of constructing a new taxonomy of nationalism based on a cultural definition can be found in anthologies tracing various national literatures. Margrit Sicherit (2003) in "Functionalizing Cultural Memory" traces all different compilations in the English anthologies and realizes the emphasis in literary history to use literature as an instrument for the construction of national identity because Benedict Anderson's (1983) view that nations are "imagined communities" and Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger's(1983) idea on 'Tradition" as a key component of this collective imagining as being "invented" resonates with literary historians (qtd, p. 216).
Irish plays, in particular, engage spectators in a cultural and national discussion and tackle the matrix of social, political, and cultural issues of Ireland. The modern plays, especially, mirrored the views of the dominant Irish political parties of the early twentieth century. The first group of Irish nationalist sought to define nationalism based on the need for political rights to self-government, while, the other group sought a common culture as the alternative method for independence. Friel, in Translations, shows the commonality of the contrasting forms to the panoptic gaze of the characters and the spectators whose role in constructing national identity is crucial. Friel provokingly engages the audience in the national dialogue by using the...