1st Edition

Translation and Gender Translating in the 'Era of Feminism'

By Luise Von Flotow Copyright 1997
    126 Pages
    by Routledge

    126 Pages
    by Routledge

    The last thirty years of intellectual and artistic creativity in the 20th century have been marked by gender issues. Translation practice, translation theory and translation criticism have also been powerfully affected by the focus on gender. As a result of feminist praxis and criticism and the simultaneous emphasis on culture in translation studies, translation has become an important site for the exploration of the cultural impact of gender and the gender-specific influence of cuture. With the dismantling of 'universal' meaning and the struggle for women's visibility in feminist work, and with the interest in translation as a visible factor in cultural exchange, the linking of gender and translation has created fertile ground for explorations of influence in writing, rewriting and reading.

    Translation and Gender places recent work in translation against the background of the women's movement and its critique of 'patriarchal' language. It explains translation practices derived from experimental feminist writing, the development of openly interventionist translation strategies, the initiative to retranslate fundamental texts such as the Bible, translating as a way of recuperating writings 'lost' in patriarchy, and translation history as a means of focusing on women translators of the past.

    1. Historical Background


    The Women's Movement and the Idea of Gender
    Women and Language
    Gender and Translation


    2. Gender and the Practice of Translation


    Experimental Feminist Writing and its Translation
    Translating the Body
    Translating Puns of Cultural References
    Translating Experiments with Language
    Interventionist Feminist Translation
    Translating Machismo
    Assertive Feminist Translation
    Recovering Women's Works 'Lost' in Patriarchy
    Further Corrective Measures


    3. Revising Theories and Myths


    Proliferating Prefaces: The Translator's Sense of Self
    Asserting the Translator's Identity
    Claiming Responsibility for 'Meaning'
    Revising the Rhetoric of Translation
    Tropes
    Achieving Political Visibility
    Revising a Fundamental Myth
    Pandora's Cornucopia


    4. Reading and Rewriting Translations


    Reading Existing Translations
    Simone de Beauvoir
    Rewriting Existing Translations
    The Bible
    Comparing 'Pre-feminist' and 'Post-feminist Translations
    Sappho and Louise Labé
    Recovering 'Lost' Women Translators
    Subversive Activity in the English Renaissance
    Nineteenth-Century Women Translators
    La Malinche


    5. Criticisms


    Criticism from Outside Feminisms
    Criticism from Within Feminisms
    Elitist Experimentation
    Opportunist Feminist Bandwagon
    'Being Democratic with Minorities'
    Revealing Women's Cultural and Political Diversity


    6. Future Perspectives


    Broad Historical Perspectives
    Contemporary Perspectives
    Public Language Policies
    Interpreting


    7. Concluding Remarks

    Biography

    Luise Von Flotow

    ... undoubtedly a valuable coursebook for teachers of translation theory ... written in a lucid and agreeable style. (Marysa Demoor, Target)