IASIL 2005 Charles University, Prague
Ireland – A Global Village?
25-28 July 2005

Ireland, Translation and the Trans-local

Irish Studies has moved from conceptualising the Irish cultural context in the form of the nation-state, to the form of the diasporic paradigm in the 1980s and 1990s, focusing on the Irish diaspora largely in the English-speaking world. This panel explores the notion of a third form, the trans-local, through analyses of the literary and cultural effects of translations of Irish literature within but also beyond the English-speaking world. Drawing on material collated in the recently launched TRASNA project (an online bibliography of Irish literature in translation) and TRASNABIO project (an online database of translators of Irish literature), the panel examines 1) how the choice of translations made in a particular culture at a particular time related to concepts of the local in both the source and target cultures and 2) the embodied agency of the translator as a mediator of these localities and the fractal travelling of the intercultural researcher.

The panel analyses three case studies: 1) an analysis of two Czech translators (within the context of the translation history of Irish literature into Czech), Adolf Hoffmeister and Karel Mušek, their contact with Irish writers (Joyce, Shaw, Synge, Yeats and Lady Gregory), and their paratextual writing in conjunction with the translations; 2) an analysis of the local and contextual influences on translators’ choices on what and how to translate Irish literature, from empirical testimony in the TRASNABIO database, focusing on the influence of publishers, inter-national recognitions, personal contact with Ireland and transculturalism, the translator and Ireland; and 3) an analysis of the relationship between the translation of Irish-language literature in Ireland and its translation abroad with a definition of the micro-cosmopolitanism of the margin within Ireland and beyond the state.

Chair: Michael Cronin (Dublin City University)

Panellists:
Michelle Woods (Centre for Translation and Textual Studies, Dublin City University)

Rita McCann (Centre for Translation and Textual Studies, Dublin City University)

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (Centre for Translation and Textual Studies, Dublin City University)