Tomas Ó Crohan’s Autobiography: A Cultural Analysis of Robin Flower’s English Translation
Abstract
Tomás Ó Crohan’s autobiography, An tOileánach, was translated into English by Robin Flower, appearing as The Islandman in 1934. It has been widely read ever since, perhaps more widely than the Irish original. A view that something is lost in the translation has persisted through the years. This paper seeks to examine this view by considering Flower’s translation as both process and product and the context in which it was produced. It seeks also to consider what it was that Flower translated.
References
Áixela, Javier Franco. Culture-specific Items in Translation.
An Seabhac. “Tomás Ó Criomhthain, Iascaire agus Údar”. Breandán Ó Conaire (Ed.). Tomás An
Bhlascaoid. Indreabhán, Conamara: Cló Iar-Chonnachta. Trans. Áine De Paor, Sydney, 2001,198-
Barthes, Roland. “The Death of the Author”. David Lodge. (Ed.). Modern Criticism and Theory.
Harlow: Addison, Wesley Longman Limited, 1988.
Bassnett, Susan. “The Meek or the Mighty: Reappraising the Role of the Translator.” Alvarez; Carmen-
Africa Vidal (Ed.). Translation, Power, Subversion. 1996, 10-24.
Bell, H. I. “Robin Ernest William Flower 1881-1946”. Proceedings of the British Academy 32. 19: 1-27.
Binchy, Daniel A. “Two Blasket Autobiographies.” Studies. 23 December 1934, 545-60.
Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. London/New York: Routledge, 1994.
Consalvo, Deborah McWilliams. “A Second Glance: Bilingualism in Twentieth Century Ireland.”
Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review 83: 331, 1994, 303-12.
Cronin, Michael. Translating Ireland: Translation Languages Cultures. Cork: Cork University Press,
Delisle, Jean and Woodsworth, Judith. Translators Through History. Benjamins Translation Library,
v. 13. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Co, 1995.
Derrida, Jacques. Positions. Trans. Bass, Alan. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1981.
Flower, Patrick. “My Father”. Mícheál de Mórdha (Ed.). Bláithín: Flower. An Daingean: An Sagart,
, 23-43.
Flower, Robin. The Western Island. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Flower, Robin. The Irish Tradition. Dublin: Lilliput Press, 1994.
Hope, Deborah. “In Other Words”. Weekend Australian. 13-14 January 2001: 10 Review.
Lefevere, Andre. Translation History Culture. Susan Bassnett; Andre Lefevere (Ed.). Translation
Studies. London/New York: Routledge, 1992.
MacConghail, Muiris. The Blaskets: People and Literature. Dublin: Country House, 1994.
Mulhern, Francis. The Present Lasts a Long Time: Essays in Cultural Politics. Seamus Deane (Ed.).
Critical Conditions: Field Day Essays and Monographs, v 7. Cork: Cork University Press, 1998.
Ní Dhomnaill, Nuala. “Bláithín”. Records at Blasket heritage Centre.
Ó Coileáin, Seán. “Tomás Ó Criomhthain, Brian Ó Ceallaigh Agus an Seabhac”. Breandán Ó Conaire.
(Ed.). Tomás An Bhlascaoid. Indreabhán, Conamara: Cló Iar-Chonnachta. 233-65. Trans. Áine
De Paor, Sydney, 2001.
Ó Criomhthain, Tomás. Allagar na hInise. First Irish edition: 1928. Trans. Áine De Paor, Sydney,
Ó Criomhthain, Tomás. An tOileánach. First Irish edition, 1929.
O’Crohan, Tomás. The Islandman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951.
Ó Faoláin, Sean. An Irish Journey. London: Readers’ Union with Longmans Green, 1941.
Ó Lúing, Seán. “Robin Flower 1881-1946.” Studies LXX, 228-9. 1981, 121-34.
Paz, Octavio. “Translations of Literature and Letters”. R Schulte; J. Biguenet (Ed.).Theories of
Translation from Dryden to Derrida.
Tymoczko, Maria. “Translation in Twentieth Century Irish Literature”. Seminar Series. IASIL
Conference. Sao Paolo, Brazil. 2002.
Sims-Williams, Patrick. “The Medieval World of Robin Flower”. Bláithín: Flower. Ed. Micheal
DeMordha. An Daingean: An Sagart, 1998. 73-96.
Stewart, James. “An tOileánach-More or Less”. Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie 35, 1976, 234-63.
Welch, Robert. Oxford Companion to Irish Literature. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2003 Irene Lucchitti
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
