The Dilemma of Colonial Hybridity in Brian Friel’s Translations

Abstract

This paper is about the colonial hybridity in Brian Friel’s Translations, which goes under the surface of the loss of Gaelic civilization due to English cultural colonization, and examines the coexistence of two incompatible cultures and the cross-fertilization of two opposing peoples in the process of Ireland’s Anglicization. If the double presence of English and Irish civilizations (e.g. place names, schools, and languages) inevitably hybridizes the characters, the tense colonial antagonism also condemns their hybridity to irreconcilable conflicts and contradictions.