Ideology, Identification and the Construction of the Feminine

Abstract

This article discusses two late nineteenth-century English translations (1889 and 1890) of ‘Le Journal de Marie Bashkirtseff’ (1887). It maintains that the two translations are an important part of the reception history of the Journal because they offer opposing representations of Bashkirtseff’s femininity. The representation of gender in translation is necessarily shaped by the identity of the translator, and in the case of Bashkirtseff’s ‘Journal’, the translator’s ideology and potential identification with the foreign text construct a unique representation of ‘feminine’ in the translation. The paper builds its argument through an investigation of the history of the ‘Journal’ (including its many translations), an exploration of the biographies of its two nineteenth-century translators (Mathilde Blind and Mary Serrano), and a detailed reading of both English translations against the French. Finally, the results of this historical inquiry are used to extend contemporary discussion about gender in translation theory by demonstrating that Mathilde Blind’s work raises questions still being debated by contemporary translation theorists.