Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
This podcast episode discusses the play Translations by Brian Friel, set in 1833 Ballybeg, Northern Ireland. It explores the British government's efforts to anglicize Irish place names and eradicate the Irish language. The concept of a cultural bomb, coined by Gugi Wa Thiong'o, is explained as an attempt to destroy a people's beliefs, language, and heritage. The characters in the play react differently to linguistic imperialism, with Moira supporting the abandonment of Irish, and Hugh advocating for an Irishization of English. The play depicts the complete domination of the English language and the impact of colonialism on Irish culture and identity. Hello and welcome to today's episode. This podcast will be focused on the play Translations, written by the Irish playwright Brian Friel in 1980. The play itself is set in the fictional Northern Irish town of Ballybeg in the year 1833. The date in which the play is set is important. The anti-British colonial rebellions of the late 18th century had been defeated. The British government had now begun to focus on achieving cultural superiority within Ireland. A major focus of this new project was the Ordnance Survey, an endeavour to map the whole country and in the process anglicise all Irish place names. Alongside this, new national schools were being opened throughout the country. These schools would teach students only in English. The culmination of this entire process was to be the eradication of the Irish language. This process of anglicisation is the crux of the play Translations. The actual narrative and storyline of the play are unimportant for this podcast. The focus instead will be on how individual characters react to the process of linguistic imperialism. Before going any further, however, I want to introduce the concept that will guide the analysis of the play. The concept of a cultural bomb was first coined by the scholar Gugi Wa Thiong'o in his 1986 book Decolonising the Mind. In explaining the meaning behind this concept, Thiong'o stated that the effect of a cultural bomb is to annihilate a people's belief in their names, in their language, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities, and ultimately in themselves. Thiong'o views cultural bomb as the aspect of colonialism which follows the sword and the bullet, an attempt to convert the hearts and minds of those who are oppressed. This theory will be further elaborated on as the episode continues, by applying it to various characters within the play Translations. The first character that will be examined is Moira Chaddock. From the beginning of the play until the end, Moira is one of the only characters who actively supports the idea of abandoning the Irish language for English. For example, early on, she declares the old language is a barrier to modern progress. I don't want Greek, I don't want Latin, I want English. For Moira, the driving reason beside her desire to learn English is the fact that she is planning on emigrating to America. At this time, in 1833, thousands of Irish people were doing the same, driven by the lack of economic prospects at home. And this lack of opportunity was a direct consequence of the extractive nature of colonialism within Ireland. However, at no point throughout the play does Moira attribute responsibility for her having to emigrate to the British colonial regime. The cultural bond had become deeply rooted within her psyche. Before moving on to the next character, I want to further elaborate on Gugui Wa Thiong'o's theory of the cultural bond. For Thiong'o, the reason that language plays such an important role in the cultural bond picking route is because language is a collective memory bank of a people's experience in history. Thiong'o makes the point that national languages are only equipped to reflect national histories. If we understand these histories through the language of the colonists, we are viewing it through their eyes and not our own. The impact of this point is clearly illustrated in the play when the character of Iolant and Eoghan are translating place names from Irish to English. Iolant confronts Eoghan about his belief that a process of erosion is taking place through their actions. In response, Eoghan recounts a story about the history of the Irish place name Tober Vrie and the fact that nobody remembers the history behind it. Except you, Iolant aptly responds. This history, whilst remembered by few other than Eoghan, was still remembered. Through the process of anglicisation, it would be definitively forgotten. Forgetting and losing these histories is a tragedy in and of itself. However, as Thiong'o alludes to, national histories are what form national cultures, and these cultures help to form our own individual identities. As a result, our own characters become intrinsically linked to colonialism. By resisting this linguistic imperialism, we therefore resist and repudiate the colonial process. However, by the end of the play, the character of Thiong'o has acquiesced to this colonial domination. He states, it can happen that a civilisation can be imprisoned in a linguistic contour which no longer matches the landscape of fact. The landscape of fact which Thiong'o is referring to is the fact that British colonialism has triumphed in Ireland. However, he still does not believe in blind submission. We must learn these new names, he says. We must learn where we live. We must learn to make them our own. We must make them our new home. Through this statement, Hugh is advocating an Irishisation of the English language. However, for Thiong'o, this state of mind merely reflects the effects of the cultural bomb, with Hugh accepting the fatalistic logic of the unassailable position of English in Irish culture. Some may question the defeatist ending to the play, and Freel's intentions in doing so. From my point of view, unlike Thiong'o, Freel does not anticipate translations to be a call to action. Rather, he views it as an honest reflection of reality. The very fact that not a word of Irish is spoken in the play, with the audience having to imagine that the English-speaking characters are in fact speaking in Irish, is a testament to the complete linguistic domination of the English language which Freel seeks to highlight. By the end of the play, facing an impending eviction from his home, alongside an eviction from his language, culture and history, Hugh laments the fall of Carthage, stating, A race was springing from Trojan blood to overthrow someday the Tyrian towers. Kings of broad realms and proud in war would come forth for Libya's downfall.
