The Octoroon, by Dion Boucicault, is a play that Boucicault himself argued is “an effective intervention in the slavery debate, one designed to reveal the real cruelties of the slavery system” (Mullen 91). By calling The Octoroon an intervention, Boucicault intimated that his play could influence what was happening during the antebellum period of United States history by starting a dialog between opposing factions. While Boucicault did indeed contribute to this dialog, he is also known for not choosing a side. “‘Nothing in the world,’ protested the Times, ‘can be more harmless and non-committal than Mr. Boucicault’s play.’ It had in it ‘no demonstrations in favor of the down-trodden, no silly preachings of pious negroes, no buncombe of Southern patriots, no tedious harangues of Eastern philanthropists.’ The Octoroon was exactly what it had intended to be ‘a picture of life in Louisiana!’” (Kaplan 551). By simply writing a play that paints “a picture of life in Louisiana,” Boucicault was able to allow his work to present the complex issues that are the ingredients in this dramatic portrait.

This masters thesis consists of a translation of acts I-IV from Dion Boucicault’s play London Assurance, a theoretical comment on the translation and a comparative study of asides. It is divided into four parts: an introduction, presenting the work and my translation strategy, as well as a short stylistic analysis; source text and translation; a theoretical comment, mainly based on theories from the field of Translation Studies, but also theories on lingustics and literature; and a comparative study of the use of asides as a theatrical convention in English and Swedish drama. The main focus of my translation strategy is to keep or adapt features that give the audience a sense of the cultural context where the play takes place, as well as the time – fashionable society in early Victorian England, while providing a text that is performable and speakable for the actors, and which preserves the humor present in the source text. / Den här masteruppsatsen består av en översättning av akt I-IV i Dion Boucicaults pjäs London Assurance, en teoretisk kommentar rörande översättningen samt en komparativ undersökning av avsidesrepliker. Den är uppdelad i fyra delar: en inledning där verket och min översättningsstrategi presenteras samt där en kort stilistisk analys görs, källtext och översättning, en teoretisk kommentar som främst grundar sig i översättningsvetenskapliga teorier, men även i språk- och litteraturvetenskapliga, samt en komparativ undersökning av användningen av avsidesrepliker som teaterkonvention i engelskt och svenskt drama. Min översättningsstrategi fokuserar på att behålla eller bearbeta sådana drag som ger publiken en känsla av pjäsens kulturella och tidsmässiga kontext – högre societet i det tidiga viktorianska England – samtidigt som texten ska vara spelbar och talbar för skådespelarna, och bevara den humor som finns i källtexten.

Using a sociolinguistic and post-colonial approach, I analyze Irish dramas that speak about language and its connection to national identity. In order to provide a systematic and wide-ranging study, I have selected plays written at approximately fifty-year intervals and performed before Irish audiences contemporary to their writing. The writers selected represent various aspects of Irish society--religiously, economically, and geographically--and arguably may be considered the outstanding theatrical Irish voices of their respective generations. Examining works by Alicia LeFanu, Dion Boucicault, W.B. Yeats, and Brian Friel, I argue that the way each of these playwrights deals with language and identity demonstrates successful resistance to the destruction of Irish identity by the dominant language power. The work of J. A. Laponce and Ronald Wardhaugh informs my language dominance theory. Briefly, when one language pushes aside another language, the cultural identity begins to shift. The literature of a nation provides evidence of the shifting perception. Drama, because of its performance qualities, provides the most complex and complete literary evidence. The effect of the performed text upon the audience validates a cultural reception beyond what would be possible with isolated readers. Following a theoretical introduction, I analyze the plays in chronological order. Alicia LeFanu's The Sons of Erin; or, Modern Sentiment (1812) gently pleads for equal treatment in a united Britain. Dion Boucicault's three Irish plays, especially The Colleen Bawn (1860) but also Arrah-na-Pogue (1864) and The Shaughraun (1875), satirically conceal rebellious nationalist tendencies under the cloak of melodrama. W. B. Yeats's The Countess Cathleen (1899) reveals his romantic hope for healing the national identity through the powers of language. However, The Only Jealousy of Emer (1919) and The Death of Cuchulain (1939) reveal an increasing distrust of language to mythically heal Ireland. Brian Friel's Translations (1980), supported by The Communication Cord (1982) and Making History (1988), demonstrates a post-colonial move to manipulate history in order to tell the Irish side of a British story, constructing in the process an Irish identity that is postnational.