BRIDGE: TRENDS AND TRADITIONS IN TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES

Vassallo, Helen. 2023. Towards a Feminist Translator Studies: Intersectional Activism in Translation and Publishing. New York: Routledge.

2024-07-08T17:57:44+02:00

Introduction: A snapshot in time: Gender in translation for the first quarter of the 21st century

2025-01-29T21:15:46+01:00

Gender has been part of Translation Studies since the 1960s, however the conceptualisation of the word and what it entails shifted dramatically in the intervening decades, encompassing everything from early feminist translation strategies of the Canadian school to the most recent discussions about gender-neutral language for the trans community. This article maps out some of these challenges and provides a platform for an insight into the current trends and themes in the first quarter of the 21^st century.

“Beautiful Flesh and Blood Women“ orjust beautiful: Women’s representation in French and Lithuanian subtitles of Sex and the City

2025-01-23T17:03:39+01:00

This study investigates the representation of women in French and Lithuanian subtitles of the popular American TV series Sex and the City. It seeks to determine whether Lithuanian subtitles reinforce or dilute the Western feminist perspectives portrayed in the series compared to the original English and subtitled French versions. Through comparative analysis, considering the subtitling practices of both countries, this interdisciplinary study at the intersection of audiovisual translation and gender studies draws inspiration from Anne-Lise Feral’s work (2011a). This study employs a qualitative analysis of the original English version and its French and Lithuanian subtitles for selected episodes of the mentioned series to understand how subtitles shape the representation of women across different cultural contexts. This research compares Lithuanian and French subtitles to assess the under-researched area of gender studies and AVT in Lithuania against the more developed field in France. The findings reveal that Lithuanian subtitles tend to alter the source text more than French subtitles, potentially presenting a slightly different portrayal of women than intended by the creators, perpetuating outdated stereotypes. This research sheds light on the influence of subtitling on the interpretation of feminist discourse in media across different cultural contexts.

Struggling with words in a quest for a gender-free identity: Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts in Greek

2024-12-16T18:24:01+01:00

A journey of self-exploration while traversing a trajectory of identities lies at the core of Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts (2015). Through this experimental hybrid book, a fusion of autobiographical writing with theoretical intertextual fragments, or what Nelson herself calls autotheory, readers are invited to navigate a queer world in which real characters explore how to live through redefining gender. The Argonauts was translated in Greek by Maria Fakinou (2020). Given Nelson sheds light on the performative construction of gender, sex(uality), and identity pointing to the signifying and transformative powers of language, this article discusses linguistic configurations of gender in English and Greek, aiming at exploring strategies for applying gender-inclusive language. By adopting a humanizing and translator-centred approach (Pym 1998, 2009; Baker 2000; Kaindl et al. 2021), this paper positions Fakinou in the centre of translation focusing on her voice and views that have affected her choices while addressing the challenge of rendering gender-unmarked terms in Greek. Drawing on epitexts, mainly on an interview given by Fakinou, this study shows that translation and translators can question and resist dominant policies, practices and attitudes, promoting polyvocality and countering the silencing of marginalized voices, thus revealing their capacity for effecting social transformation.

Translating genderless characters in the confinements of grammatical gender in children’s literature

2024-11-09T18:46:55+01:00

This paper aims to examine methods used to translate genderless characters from languages with natural gender into languages with grammatical gender, specifically from English to Slovak. The context of children’s literature is used. First, the difference between natural and grammatical gender is examined (Ibrahim 1973). Consequently, the importance of gender-inclusive language is stressed (Di Sabato and Perri 2020). The possibilities for gender-inclusive expressions offered by a language using grammatical gender are highlighted, considered, and applied into practice (Cviková et al. 2014; Urbancová 2022). Two research questions are answered: 1. How can a language using grammatical gender be gender inclusive? 2. Should specific translation strategies be used when translating gender in children’s literature? The author of this paper aims to answer these questions from the position as a researcher and a translator.

Gendergerecht oder doch maskulin? Zu Möglichkeiten und Grenzen eines gendersensiblen Sprachausdrucks in der Übersetzung ausgewählter juristischer Textsorten (Deutsch – Slowakisch)

2024-11-17T20:30:06+01:00

Die Sprache als Kommunikationsmittel ist kein neutrales Werkzeug, sondern drückt immer auch gesellschaftliche Norm- und Wertvorstellungen aus und prägt maßgeblich menschliche Wahrnehmungen. Somit kommt der Sprache bei der Schaffung von Realitäten eine bedeutende Rolle zu. Dies betrifft auch die in den letzten Jahrzehnten viel diskutierte Genderproblematik. Der vorliegende Beitrag setzt sich mit der gendersensiblen Sprache und den Möglichkeiten und Grenzen ihrer Umsetzung in der juristischen Übersetzung (Deutsch – Slowakisch) auseinander. Zu Beginn wird in einem Exposé die Entstehung der feministischen Linguistik vor dem Hintergrund sprachpolitischer Entwicklungen der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts sowie die darauffolgenden Bemühungen, die Sichtbarkeit der Frauen in der Sprache und durch die Sprache zu institutionalisieren und zu festigen, dargelegt. Ein besonderes Augenmerk wird hierbei auf die Rolle der Sprache bei der Herstellung von Geschlechtergerechtigkeit gerichtet. Erläutert werden dabei tragende Begriffe der Genderlinguistik wie Genderneutralität, Gendergerechtigkeit oder Gendersensibilität, und dies insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen ihrer sprachlichen Realisierung im Text. Am Beispiel von ausgewählten deutschen juristischen Textsorten wird anhand einer Textanalyse anschließend exemplarisch gezeigt, ob und wie die gendersensible Ausdrucksweise unter Berücksichtigung der Maxime juristischer Übersetzung in der translatorischen Praxis umzusetzen ist. Abschließend werden Empfehlungen in puncto Übersetzungsstrategien bzw. -verfahren für eine gendergerechte Rechtsübersetzung (Deutsch – Slowakisch) aufgestellt.

Gender similarities and differences in selected personality characteristics of (future) interpreters

2024-11-09T18:29:39+01:00

The paper presents the results of research on the selected personality characteristics of professional interpreters and interpreting students, with a specific focus on gender differences. The characteristics studied were anxiety (measured by STAI) and achievement motivation (measured by AMI). The results of our research show that women (n=33) are characterized by higher anxiety compared to men (n=10). Regarding motivation, women (n=31) in our research were also characterized by statistically significant higher pride in productivity, status orientation, and competitiveness compared to men (n=10). However, these differences in personality characteristics do not cause significant differences in interpreting performance between men and women.

Donna J. Haraway’s cyborg: A feminist lens for Translation in the era of the technological turn

2025-01-03T16:26:59+01:00

The rising technologization of Translation as a profession has led to consider the act of translation as a hybridization between human and machine, highlighting the need to examine the ethical and human implications of the “technological turn” (Jiménez-Crespo 2020, 314) in Translation Studies, to which we add the feminist lens, through the cyborg theory proposed by Haraway in A Cyborg Manifesto (2016[1985]). Thus, the cyborg would be a lens through which to explore the intersections between translators, gender, and technology. From a theoretical and approximative perspective, the present study offers an overview of the advance of technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Translation field in recent years and of the notion of the cyborg as a tool to overcome Cartesian dualism to finally conclude with an exploration of the notion of the cyborg as a political fiction of great potential for translators, especially as a feminized profession subject to capitalist market logics.