Hello, I’m Alannah. Welcome to my profile. 

I currently work from Spanish to English and have French as an additional language. My main interests for translation are poetry, autobiography and historical and romantic fiction. In terms of further research, I am interested in musical theatre translation and pedagogy. Additionally, I would like to infuse my interests in translation with mental health advocacy. 

As of December 2024, I have had two poetry translations published in the Trinity Journal of Literary Translation (JoLT), Volume 13 Term Issue 1 (pages 82-87). These translations deal with the theme of desire within an individual’s autonomy, to gain control of themselves and their mental health. The link is here: https://issuu.com/trinityjolt10/docs/issuuu2/4?ff

Academically, I have just completed a M.Phil in Literary Translation at Trinity College Dublin. In this Masters, I undertook two year-long academic projects.

My Literary Translation Portfolio, entitled “Big Emotions, Big World”, dealt with the expression of interpersonal relationships in literature. The extracts translated in this portfolio ranged from novel extracts, TV episode scripts and free verse poetry.

My Literary Translation Dissertation, entitled ”Making an Infamous Love Story Sing: Translating Bonnie and Clyde the Musical into Spanish”, covered the translatorial and dramatic elements required to stage a translated version of Bonnie and Clyde the Musical. In this work, I coined a new term – halfway domestication, to illustrate the balance of foreignisation and domestication approaches needed whilst working on the translation of musical theatre pieces. In addition to this theoretical basis, I also included technical aspects for the creative team in this hypothetical production, including a vocal analysis of the score and each role for the supporting and principal cast. The language pair for this project was English – Spanish.

Other than these academic projects, I completed two research essays on the topics of melancholy and the intersection of grief and love in Soviet and children’s literature respectively. As an independent writer, I have also published two short-form articles with The Film Magazine. The first of these was a commemorative review for The Sound of Music (https://www.thefilmagazine.com/the-sound-of-music-1965-review/) and a short-form review article for actress Angela Lansbury’s back catalogue (https://www.thefilmagazine.com/angela-lansbury-defining-performances/). Apart from my film review work, I have fostered my interest in contemporary Argentine history by authoring a historical article about the life and legacy of Eva Perón (https://manchesterhistorian.com/2023/eva-peron-a-champion-of-the-people-or-self-obsessed-star-by-alannah-purslow/).