BRIDGE: TRENDS AND TRADITIONS IN TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES

CfP Vol. 5, no. 2 (2024): Rethinking Gender in Translation

Edited by Eva Spišiaková (Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra)

The topic of gender in all its varied forms accompanied Translation Studies already from its birth as an academic discipline in the 1980s and 1990s, both in the form of early works in feminist translations (Chamberlain 1988; Lotbinière-Harwood 1991; Simon 1996), and in  research exploring translation through a queer lens (Harvey 2000; Keenaghan 1998; Mira 1999). Since then, gender became a well-established topic within Translation Studies with several collected volumes and special editions that not only consolidated the two fields, but also finally allowed for much-needed cross-pollination between feminist and queer themes (Baer and Kaindl 2017; Epstein and Gillett 2017; Flotow 2011; Larkosh 2011).

However, the half century that elapsed since these first theoretical encounters between translation and gender brought a number of new challenges for translators and interpreters as the role of gender in language use expands and transforms. The Me-Too movement irreversibly changed feminist discourse and how we talk about sexual violence by exposing issues such as victim-blaming, but also highlighted the harmful gendered stereotypes entrenched in languages and the need for a particularly mindful approach amongst translators and interpreters. The definition of queerness likewise expanded along its porous borders, as terms such as ‘genderqueer’, ‘asexuality’, ‘drag’ or ‘rainbow washing’ entered global parlance and need to be accommodated into new linguistic systems. The push for the recognition of transgender rights and the increasing visibility of nonbinary people have brought a number of linguistic quandaries, whether it is the question of how to translate singular ‘they’ and neopronouns into languages with a much stronger presence of grammatical gender (see e.g. Völkening 2022), or how to deal with the translation of nonbinary characters in literature and media, such as in the Booker Prize winner novel Girl, Woman, Other (Evaristo 2019).

Gender-neutral language is also increasingly becoming a standard requirement in translations for corporations with a global reach, frequently imposed without clear guidelines on how to achieve these in languages that have gendered terms built into their grammatical systems. These are further complicated by the ubiquitous use of neural machine translation, which frequently reveals hidden biases assimilated by algorithms that replicate gendered stereotypes. The past years have also brought several discussions about representation, such as the heated discussion about Amanda Gorman’s poem The Hill We Climb (2021) and its Dutch translation (Kotze and Strowe 2021); these discussion poise questions about whether the identity and lived experience of the translator correlates with their expertise, but also about the ways gender categories and sexual orientations intersect with race, class, (dis)ability and other factors.

The proposed volume plans to explore these new iterations of gender in translation, with themes including but not limited to the following:

• Feminist translations in the post-Me-Too era
• Translating terminology associated with gender, feminism and queerness
• Gender and gender-neutral language in specialized and technical translations
• LGBTQ+ themes in translation and interpreting
• Gender bias in interpreting, translation and machine translation
• Translation of trans and non-binary characters in literature, videogames and audiovisual media
• Gender-related trends in the publishing industry

We welcome full-paper submissions reflecting the abovementioned issues. All articles must be written in English and should not exceed 7,000 words. We also welcome reviews of publications related to the main topic of this issue.

Deadline for submission: 12 July 2024

Your submission should be sent via the journal website after your registration at: https://www.bridge.ff.ukf.sk/

Please follow the journal stylesheet at: https://www.bridge.ff.ukf.sk/index.php/bridge/about/submissions

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References

Baer, Brian James, and Klaus Kaindl. 2017. Queering Translation, Translating the Queer: Theory, Practice, Activism. London: Routledge.

Chamberlain, Lori. 1988. “Gender and the Metaphorics of Translation.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 13(3): 454–72.

Epstein, B. J., and Robert Gillett. 2017. Queer in Translation. London: Routledge.

Evaristo, Bernardine. 2019. Girl, Woman, Other. London: Hamish Hamilton.

Flotow, Luise Von. 2011. Translating Women. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.

Gorman, Amanda. 2021. The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country. New York: Viking Books.

Harvey, Keith. 2000. “Gay Community, Gay Identity and the Translated Text.” TTR : traduction, terminologie, rédaction 13(1): 137–65.

Keenaghan, Eric. 1998. “Jack Spicer’s Pricks and Cocksuckers.” The Translator 4(2): 273–94.

Kotze, Haidee, and Anna Strowe. 2021. “Response by Kotze and Strowe to ‘Representing Experiential Knowledge.’” Translation Studies 14(3): 350–54.

Larkosh, Christopher. 2011. Re-Engendering Translation: Transcultural Practice, Gender/Sexuality and the Politics of Alterity. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.

Lotbinière-Harwood, Susanne de. 1991. Re-Belle et Infidèle: La Traduction Comme Pratique de Réécriture Au Féminin [The Body Bilingual: Translation as a Re-Writing in the Feminine]. Montréal: Les Éditions du Remue-Ménage: MacIntosh.

Mira, Alberto. 1999. “Pushing the Limits of Faithfulness: A Case for Gay Translation.” In The Practices of Literary Translation: Constraints and Creativity, eds. Jean Boase-Beier and Michael Holman. Manchester: St Jerome Publishing, 109–23.

Simon, Sherry. 1996. Gender in Translation - Cultural Identity and the Politics of Transmission. London and New York: Routledge.

Völkening, Lena. 2022. Gendern: Warum Wir Die Flexibilität Des Sprachsystems Nutzen Sollten. Münster: Unrast.