Language, Not Politics Or History Essay

Manus is her speech therapist, teacher, and close friend and is adamant about Sarah’s progession in the language. “ We’re doing very well. And we’re going to try it once more- just once more. . . Come on, Sarah. . . Head up. Mouth open” ( Friel 2). Through Manus’ proding, the reader gauges how set back Sarah’s character is to the rest of the Irish social and verbal society. She can barely speak her name and is too shy in front of other characters to even try to express herself orally. Through the inability of Sarah to talk, one can notice the distinction between those of the Gaelic-speaking background and those who speak English. Gaelic, a now almost dead language, can be seen as a ‘ dumb’ language that only ‘ dumb’ individuals like Sarah speak, and because she can not articulate her Gaelic phrases correctly, Friel lowers her character even further below the ‘ dumb’ Gaelic class as a unintelligible

It was at this juncture, when the play takes place, that Britain began to make deeper inroads to Irish society and culture. An attempt to colonise the mind and the people as opposed to conquering land through brute force. Translations is Friel’s vehicle for representing methods central to the colonial discourse of Imperialist aspirations. In the foreground of the play

Power is gained in many ways throughout the text. Text I has been written, primarily, to persuade an audience to share their (bwag) views on the new Sainsburys being built in their “medieval heritage” town of Bishops Waltham, therefore it is aimed at residents of the town who are old enough to write a valid letter of complaint – age 18-70. Firstly, imperatives are used to be assertive right from the beginning of the text. The word “write” in “write a letter today” immediately sets a forward and confident tone to the text, making the matter seem important. As Bishops Waltham is a town without a superstore, this suggests it is small. This also suggests that the bwag group is also small therefore may not be well known to

The English language is particularly complex in almost all aspects. Many of the words in the English language have different meanings for the same word. This is not unlike the definition of the different levels of usage. McCrimmon defines the three levels, formal, moderate, and colloquial, by their sentence structure, diction, and tone (McCrimmon 193). ¹ Using McCrimmon’s definitions, authors can determine what type of writing is applicable to each of the three levels. For the formal writings, an adequate example of where readers can find it is in a professional journal, and an appropriate place to find an example of the moderate level is in a weekly news magazine. Also, the best place to look for an example of the colloquial level is in certain sections of the newspaper. All of the levels of usage apply to these different types of writings and assist in defining what each level involves.

‘changed the odd thing here and there’ of the short story. The variations of the play and the short story are apparent in depth of detail and main focuses of the language features and structure.

Lawrence famously said, “ Never trust the teller, trust the tale” and with that in mind, I wish to explore the reasons why audiences and readers may perceive translations as a political play. The action of the play over three acts shows the profoundly disturbing influence of the English domination over the Baile Beag

The two historical documents, Narrative of Lavinia Bell written by an anonymous author in the Montreal Gazette and the Letter to an English Abolitionist by James Henry Hammond, shared their strong opinions on the important issue of slavery. These documents were written in the 1800’s during an era of progressive changes. One can identify similarities and many differences in their opinions, motives, and goals for their writings. I believe Bell’s account was written to show the perspective of slaves’ brutal view, compared to Hammond’s letter justifying slavery and the rights of the slaveholders.

It is very fitting that this play is set in a hedge school in Baile Beag in 1833. Firstly, the educational system was going to be “revamped” in the eyes of the English and in the hedge schools, languages such as Greek and Latin were thought to be useful as opposed to English which was virtually unknown. Secondly, language is a fundamental aspect of development and language is fundamental to education – so the English must begin with where education takes place so as to work its way into society. Those who end up running the country are usually those who are educated and those are the ones people look to for guidance. England is clever in their approach because if those who are educated are forced to learn about English culture that is all future generations will grow to know over time. This tactic is almost infallible because replaces the languages the Irish learned with the English standard, and forces the Irish to communicate in new ways, thus beginning the process breaking down the Irish people and their culture – a powerful strategy.

The speaker for this pre-performance talk was made by foreign language professor Dr. Katie Angus. Being a French professor, she offered her comments on Molière’s play Tartuffe. She began the talk by describing why some of her students decided to study French out of the other language choices available. The answers ranged from “my grandmother speaks French,” to “it is a beautiful language,” to Angus’s own reason of “Spanish was full.” She then spoke about the translation of play from French to English and how difficult it is to create. The translator must have good knowledge of both languages and must choose which elements the play has in its original language to try to keep and which ones to sacrifice. She explained that in the original French

Shakespeare in the Bush is an article written by American Anthropologist Laura Bohannan regarding the incident during her fieldwork in Tiv of West Africa. It demonstrated the relationship between culture and literary translation and illustrated the importance of the concept: cultural interpretation. Due to the fact that our culture is never singular, but plural, elders in Tiv had a hard time understanding the “true meaning” of Hamlet. Bohannan has always thought that Hamlet only had one universal interpretation until she altered her thinking after the elders analyzed the plot in their perspective. Bohannan soon realized that things are hardly universal, different interpretations exist in different cultures.

Have to is a non-modal alternative to the modal verb must to talk about obligation.

Evaluating the text from a Structuralist perspective reveals language as the primary source of political discourse and hegemony. In 1984, language is both an instrument and an effect of power. Michel Foucault’s discursive practices suggest that discourse “transmits and produces power” (Foucault, 1980). It has the capacity to govern social interactions, limit the parameters of human thought and endorse political ideologies. Structuralist Jonathan Culler corroborates Foucault’s assertion in his book, Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics and the Study of Literature, by avowing that language “governs the individual and determines meaning” (Culler, 1968). He elaborates on this notion by construing that the linguistic-structuralist model can assist in “formulating the rules of particular systems of convention rather than simply affirm their existence" (Culler, 1968). When Winston has lunch with a Party member named Syme, he explains how Newspeak narrows the range of thought, thereby reducing the concept of what it means to be human:

As I sat in my never-all-that-comfortable seat at the theater to watch "Titanic" for the second time on the big screen, a thought quite alien came over me: good usage in language. This film, based on the 1912 disaster, went to the extremes on details to make everything about it convey the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The language of the film was scripted as best to the year 1912 as was the model made of the ship itself. The film showed the language of both the upper crust ("nobility" of America) and the lower class of different nations of the world.

With detailed reference to Text H and to relevant ideas from language study, explore how written language is used to assert power

“Translatability is an essential quality of certain works” as stated by Walter Benjamin in The Task of The Translator. In his essay, Benjamin argues that translatability is a quality of a select few works that are “significant” and have “risen to fame.” He puts on more emphasis on the literary works when translating than the ability of the translator. Benjamin also adds that languages shares an inner relationship that is only revealed when translation is done properly. In general, he indicates that the task of a translator is to “renew” great works.