Gender and the Practice of Translation

This chapter develops the theme of experimental feminist writing and the consequent deconstruction of the tropes of conventional language, highlighting work by Nicole Brossard and Mary Daly. It turns toward issues that arise when translating women’s writing about ‘the body’, or translating feminist neologisms, or directly intervening in the text with feminist purpose. It ends with a discussion of the challenges encountered when re-translation of historical feminist texts is undertaken. The work of translating in an ‘era of feminism’, powerfully influenced by feminist thought has had an acute effect on translation practice. First, translators have sought out contemporary women’s writing in order to translate it into their own cultures. Because of the experimental nature of this work, they had to deal with enormous technical challenges in the translations. Second, women’s movement has defined language as a powerful political instrument, many women working in an ‘era of feminism’ also face issues of intervention and censorship in translation: When and how do politicized translators ‘correct’ a text? To what extent does the translator’s role become overtly political? Lastly, the interest in a lineage of important women writers and thinkers created an impressive corpus of translated ‘lost’ works. This is because these texts have only now been recuperated, so the work of the translator moves well beyond traditional bounds of translation and incorporates annotation and criticism. Gender awareness in translation practice poses questions about: the links between social stereotypes and linguistic forms, politics of language and cultural differences, ethics of translation, and reviving inaccessible works for contemporary readers. It highlights the importance of the cultural context in which translation is done.