Anglicisation as Linguistic Violence: Brian Friel’s ‘Translations’ and the Question of Cultural Identity — A Literary Analysis

Brian Friel’s Translations presents cultural identity as an ongoing discourse. Set in 1833, the play deals with the cultural effects of the English colonising mission in Ireland—namely, the systemic dismantling and erasure of Gaelic culture via the anglicisation of Irish place names and maps, and the replacement of Irish hedge-schools. In response to the inevitability of ‘cartographic violence’, Friel argues for the ‘renewing of images’ as a way for victims of colonialism to reclaim their cultural identity from the English.