In the past few decades, translation has become a central concern of literary studies. The importance of translation is nowhere more evident than in the case of the language and literature of Ireland. The first extant verses written in Ireland can be found in manuscripts among texts in and translated from a veritable smorgasbord of languages, and contrary to popular depictions of Ireland as a dark and backward land at the edge of the known world, the island and its languages in fact played a central role in European trade, politics, literature, and learning. Though many have long declared the imminent demise of Irish in the wake of English invasion and colonization, writers have continued to produce extraordinary works of literature as Gaeilge long before the cataclysmic 17th and 18th Centuries and into the 20th and 21st.

Irish Literature in Translation offers a broad historical look into both poetry and prose, while zeroing in on a representative collection of stand-out texts, with special reference to the practice of translation, from the early marginal verse of Irish scribes (and their lasting legacy in 20th and 21st Century Irish Poetry) to contemporary innovators such as Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Students will not only read Irish literature in English translation, but we will think deeply about the process of translation itself. To this end, we will be using Jeremy Munday’s excellent Introducing Translation Studies, as well as Michael Cronin’s groundbreaking and exhaustive study Translating Ireland, to provide an historical and scholarly framework through which to engage with our literary readings.

We will be reading a number of important literary texts in translation – many in many translations – including the Old Irish Epic Táin Bó Cuailnge in Lady Augusta Gregory’s Revival-era rendering as well as Thomas Kinsella’s 1969 reclamation at the outset of what would become known as the Northern Irish Troubles; Seamus Heaney’s notorious versioning of the alleged English Ur-Text Beowulf; as well as Ciaran Carson’s and Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s engagements with the well-known 18th Century texts Cúirt an Mheán Oíche (The Midnight Court) and Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire (The Keen for Art O’Leary); just to name a few. Special attention will be paid to theoretical issues arising from the problems posed by the act of translation in the Irish context as well as the place of Irish literature in a comparative literary canon. All texts will be read in English, but whenever possible Irish Language originals will also be provided.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills