The strange case of Flann O’Brien and Myles na gCopaleen: a master of English language translated from Gaelic into Spanish

Abstract

ABSTRACT Brian O’Nolan wrote in English and Gaelic under different pseudonyms, Flann O’Brien for his English novels and Myles na gCopaleen for his work in Gaelic. While O’Brien is considered a master of Postmodernist literature, the work written under the Gaelic pen name, eminently satiric, remained that of an obscure author in a minority language. It was just one more authorial identity among many created by O’Nolan. This complexity of authorial personae did not get through the translations into Spanish until O’Brien was characterised as a great canonical English-language author. I apply Casanova’s model of translation as unequal exchange to describe how the literary capital of O’Brien brought attention to his Gaelic-language counterpart and helped to consecrate him when translated into Spanish. To that end, I compare the paratextual material in the first edition (with no introduction) and the second edition (on a literary collection with an informative introduction and laudatory paratexts by reputed authors) of the same translation of An Béal Bocht to show how the characterisation of O’Brien as a great English-language writer in the period between one edition and the other allowed the translator to introduce na gCopaleen and Gaelic to the Spanish readership in the second edition.