Feminism and literary translation: A systematic review

Isra Irshad,Musarat Yasmin

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09082

Abstract

Feminist translation theory demeans the culture of the patriarchal hegemony of translation. The purpose of this study is twofold: to investigate the main trends in the studies on feminism and literary translation and to analyse the main ways through which feminist translation theory has been applied by various researchers in the studies of translated novels. To this end, the databases of EBSCO, ProQuest, Taylor and Francis, ETHOS, and Google Scholar have been explored, and thirty-three studies published between 2005 and 2021 have been analysed. A systematic review was used as a research methodology, and the studies were analysed using a content analysis method. The findings revealed that there are very few significant studies on feminism and translation of novels, and at least until the sharp increase in interest in research in the field emerged in 2019. Moreover, other studies have concluded that feminist translation theory has focused on examining the impact of gender consciousness and translator ideology on the translation process, exploring feminist translation strategies, and analysing the transmission of gendered language in the translated text. The findings have provided feminist and translation studies researchers with a comprehensive understanding of the current state of applied feminist translation theory in the studies addressing translated novels.

Highlights

The translation is a process of transferring linguistic codes from one language to another, but it has become a political activity (Li, 2020)
The linguistic theories applied to translation are critiqued, as they “have moved from word to text as a unit, but not beyond” (Bassnett, and Lefevere, 1990: 4), and these theories do not take into account the text in its cultural environment
This section will provide readers with an overview of the results found on the trend in the research on feminism and translation of novels, and the extracted aspects regarding the application of the feminist translation theory

Summary

Introduction

The translation is a process of transferring linguistic codes from one language to another, but it has become a political activity (Li, 2020). After the 1990s, scholars started analysing it from the perspective of cultural theories (Hou et al, 2020). In this context, the linguistic theories applied to translation are critiqued, as they “have moved from word to text as a unit, but not beyond” (Bassnett, and Lefevere, 1990: 4), and these theories do not take into account the text in its cultural environment. The issue of ideological impact on translations was not fully recognized in the past (Baumgarten, 2012). Against this backdrop, the feminist theory came to be applied to translation

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