According to Seamus Deane, Translations is a play about...

According to Seamus Deane, Translations is a play about the tragedy of English Imperialism. How far would you agree with this statement in relation to both Translations and Heart of Darkness? INTRO Although the location, language and structure of Brian Friels Translations differs unmistakably from that of Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness, the topic of colonisation remains central to both. While the supposed sophistication of civilised colonists is deconstructed in Conrads novella to reveal mans common darkness, Friels play deals with the ways in which the consciousness of an entire culture is fractured by the transcription of one landscape (Gaelic, classical and traditional) for another (Anglo-Saxon, progressive and†¦show more content†¦The name not only retells the anecdote which defined Brians Well, but also evokes Owens memories of his grandfather. The Irish place-names had developed into historical, cultural and social storehouses through their varied associations and values. The reduction of such ontological knowledge to an epistemological referent through colonial dispossession therefore reduces identity in an eviction of sorts. The destructive force of English Imperialism is echoed in Conrads Heart of Darkness and is revealed to us through Marlows portrayal of the Africans he encounters and the treatment they are subject to. Forced to work under the conditions of European mechanical labour, the natives acquired expressions of the deathlike indifference of unhappy savages as they became reduced to nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation. The civilised colonists place the savages in chain gangs, enslaving them; eliminating their identities and breaking their spirit as a people. Throughout the entire novel we, the reader do not learn a single of the Africans names. They are collectively labelled niggers, creatures, rebels, savages, enemies, ants and criminals by the colonisers. Even the individual natives Marlow speaks of remain unnamed, distant and alien. This is