Domestication as a mode of cultural resistance

Irish-english translations of Chekhov

Zsuzsanna Csikai

pp. 245-254

in: Teresa Seruya (ed), Rereading Schleiermacher, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

Analyzing translations and adaptations of Chekhov's works by contemporary Irish playwrights the paper investigates the ways in which translation in the wider sense of the word reflects as well as contributes to the formation of cultural identities. In my paper I explore how domestication in literary translation, usually seen as potentially supporting an attitude of cultural imperialism, can also serve as a politically engaged, resistant strategy. I argue that the intensively Hibernicised translations of Chekhov in the context of post-colonial Ireland are exemplars of domestication as a means of resistance to the formerly available Standard British English translations of Chekhov as manifestations of the still keenly felt cultural influence of Britain in Ireland. This way such translations enhance cultural self-assertion in Irish theatre and culture, and ultimately they further what Brian Friel calls the "decolonization of the mind", that is, the process of intellectual decolonization.