Translations of Ossian, Thomas Moore and the Gothic by 19th Century European Radical Intellectuals: The Democratic Eastern Federation

Kathleen Ann O'Donnell

doi:10.17951/lsmll.2019.43.4.89-104

Abstract

This article will show how translated works by European radical writers of The Poems of Ossian by the Scot James Macpherson and Irish Melodies and other works by the Irishman Thomas Moore, were disseminated. Moore prefaced Irish Melodies with “In Imitation of Ossian”. It will also demonstrate how Celtic literature, written in English, influenced the Gothic genre. The propagation of these works was also disseminated in order to implement democratic federalism, without monarchy; one example is the Democratic Eastern Federation, founded in Athens and Bucharest. To what extent did translations and imitations by Russian and Polish revolutionary intellectuals of Celtic literature and the Gothic influence Balkan revolutionary men of letters?

Highlights

Ossian and Revolution The Scots and Irish were suppressed by English monarchy after the 1745 Jacobite War and the 1798 Irish Uprising, respectively
While Ipsilantis actively fought for these ideals, exiled Russian Decembrists would endeavour to depict the political upheaval resulting from the French Revolution through a new genre – the Gothic
Thomas Moore and Polish Translation Mickiewicz, the national poet of Poland who belonged to a secret organization known as Philomats1 was banished to Russia where he met exiled Decembrists

Summary

Introduction

Translations of Ossian, Thomas Moore and the Gothic... In his translation of Lalla Rookh, Jhoukovsky in the poem Paradise and the Peri (a peri is a creature of the imagination, higher than man but lower than an angel) influenced Pushkin who, in turn, quotes from Saadi’s Garden included in his eastern verse tale entitled The Fountain of Bakhchisarai: Many, like me, have viewed this fountain, but they are gone, and their eyes are closed for ever

Results

Conclusion