Book excerpt: "Translating Ireland explores centuries of translation activity during which the languages, cultures and literatures of Ireland have been affected by the work of Irish translators in Ireland and elsewhere. Translation in Ireland has functioned as a weapon of political propaganda, an agent of linguistic reform, and a catalyst for cultural renewal and yet the activity of translators during often controversial circumstances has remained unacknowledged." "In this pioneering study Michael Cronin examines the widespread translation activity in Ireland in the Middle Ages and argues for a re-evaluation of the work of translators from that period. He then examines the central role of translation in the political and cultural upheaval of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, particularly the theoretical responses of translators to changing political conditions. Antiquarianism, the Celtic Revival and emergent nationalism in the nineteenth century are all bound up with the act of translation and Translating Ireland analyses the tensions and competing cultural allegiances of translators in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Literary revival in both English and Irish looked to translation as a source of a creative energy and the new state saw translation as both necessary and desirable. There is an analysis of the fortunes of translation in Ireland in the twentieth century, both as pragmatic activity in an officially bilingual state and as a way of opening the languages and literatures of Ireland to the literatures and cultural experiences of other peoples." "Translating Ireland examines what happens in the contact zone between languages and how translation affects both the development of language and literature and the construction of identity. In a country that has witnessed radical changes in language use over the centuries, translation has become an important element in political, linguistic and cultural self-knowledge."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved