Translation and Gender: Translating in the 'Era of Feminism'(Translation Theories Explored)

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.

Table of Contents:
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

About the Author :
Luise Von Flotow

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