Feminism and translation: back to the beginning and on to the future
How feminism and translation came together, and where they are heading.
Quebec/Canada in the 1970s and 1980s. It will reference the National Film Board documentary “Les terribles vivantes” (1986), and work from Louky Bersianik, Nicole Brossard and their translators Howard Scott, Susanne De Lotbinière-Harwood and Barbara Godard. What was it that made their collaboration so fruitful?
The talk will then move on to how this combination – feminism and translation/translation
studies – developed over the years, and in different parts of the world:
- in the rereading and revision of existing translations, such as the Bible or Qu’ran,
- in the study of women translators, their work and their influence
- in the examination of how women authors have been treated in translation.
The future of this interdisciplinary work is beset with challenges that include intersectionality, gender diversity, transnational and decolonial feminisms, and most recently, disability studies. I will address each of these topics briefly in order to explore where feminist approaches to the field of translation studies might be heading today, and why.