Gender and Translation: Translating in the Age of Feminism - Term Paper Example

? Practices involving feminist translation have yielded approaches that have been developed with concentrations on modern translations of old and contemporary literatures, and with some degree of feminist emphasis. Gender individualities are volatile, unpredictable interpretations that uncover a lot about the thoughts and interactions involving the people and civilizations. The relationship between the studies in gender and translation directs toward an enthralling ground of broad disagreement in which personal yearnings and individualities are recognized or discarded, or authorized and outlawed. This paper points toward deliberating issues involving feminism in translation, along with the complications that can stem from translating texts that contain gender-related subject matters. Furthermore, this shall touch on matters that include translation and gender, the invisibility or visibility of gender in translation, and the case of Huada Alsharawi memoirs. This is a rather difficult and thought-provoking undertaking, particularly on examining the connection between feminism and highly investigational writings. Hence, the approaches employed within the realms of this paper can be extremely advantageous for readers to understand how feminism and translation play a big part in both old and modern-day literature. Gender and Translation: Translating in the Age of Feminism The theoretical and scholarly correlation between gender studies and feminism in translation is not an established concept, nonetheless, anything novel. There have been many modern-day literary scholars who uncovered the various categories of literal or written manipulation used in both gender studies and feministic translation to perform certain ideological schemata. Furthermore, numerous studies ascertain a logical and sensible relationship between gender studies and feministic translation given that both areas underscore the literary "recognition of the other." Translation in the an age of feminism, in a period so much affected and manipulated by feminist theory, had a tremendous impact in feminist translation practices. The recognition of gender in translation proposes queries concerning the connections between “social stereotypes and linguistic forms, about the politics of language and cultural difference, about the ethics of translation, and about reviving inaccessible works for contemporary readers” (Surugiu, n.d.). It draws attention to the weight and significance of the cultural background in which translation is being carried out. The argument about gender issues with regards to translation theory links with the interpretation of translation as nothing but a mere rewriting of texts (Venuti, 1995, p.17, 312). However, this undertaking is a modern literary advancement in translation theory. The ultimate foundation of feminist translation is being linked to the individual and social condition category of the translator and the translation. While Snell-Hornby (1990, p.82) believes that translation is being appreciated as a multicultural handover; this “handover” indicates an ideological transfer that rules a civilization and, therefore, any translator should have profound knowledge of the concepts, thoughts, beliefs and standards that hook up to the language being translated (Nissen, 2002, p.255). Gender and Translation In modern decades, a large number of academic writings and researches that primarily focus on translation are being directed toward the notions of gender in translation (Simon, 1996, p.34; Flotow, 2001, p.121). Furthermore, Chamberlain (1998, p.165) argues that topics related to gender in the practice of translation are countless and diverging extensively in terms of the type or nature of the literature being translated, affected languages, and “cultural practices” among others. Most literary scholars and linguists regard gender as a classification of nouns into different categories namely feminine, masculine, or neuter; although, the correct use of pronouns is particularly crucial in that it could affect other elements of grammar. Usually, languages that employ "grammatical gender" method classify nouns according to their gender type consistent with "morphological and phonological features" (Pauwels, 2003, p.232). Although there are those who believe that a grammatical gender method has no correlation whatsoever with "extra linguistic" classification of sexes, the method is not just a scheme of morphology; nonetheless, it likewise possesses a semantic origin that eventually comes to be so discernable, especially when a grammatical gender signifies persons, where there is a significant among nouns used to refer to masculinity or femininity (Corbett, 1991, p.67). Gender in Translation Studies While not being utilized by Simone de Beauvoir (1989, p.96) in her book The Second Sex, the word "gender" is used on the subject of her writings. As reflected on her writings, she perspicuously argues that gender does not necessarily refer to the biological sexes of human or its variations, but she refers to gender as a social paradigm that widens and fulfills the differences in biological variations. Hence, Beauvoir (1989, p. 100) advises that a young child, although borne with a definitive sex identification, does not merely evolves as a woman equipped with pre-determined thoughts, rather, she evolves into a woman that is molded according to the environment she has evolved in. She evolves into a person through the expectancies of the people or things around her such as family, education, training or community. Feminist employed the use of gender to speak about the procedure of injecting into females the different traits and characteristics e.g. the physical, psychological, social qualities that are poles apart from those common among men. In history, gender recognition takes place in cultures wherein gender formations, the societal concept system that predetermine the differences in sex, go through alterations or modifications. This is also true with regards to racial recognition, which believes that race becomes obvious when notions about race are unstable and constantly changes, or other societal aspects like economics and politics among others: these ideas are reconsidered when customs and other forms of social habit change. Therefore, gender, whether it refers to a man or a woman, a male or a female, each person's individual qualities crops up as a ground for inquiry and exploration each time gender roles change. Due to the fact that gender roles have the tendency to change almost continuously, with respect to various types of factors, e.g. politic, individual reality or moral concepts, gender is always a central point of idea and writing both in widely-accepted culture and in methodical principles. To fall back on culture appended another element to translation studies. As a result, translations have now been viewed as outcomes of cultural representation, something that are illustrations of an arbitration procedure naturally and traditionally associated with other means of communication. Feminism has long been considered to be one of the many important paradigms of cultural individuality to obtain eminence within the linguistic, economics, social and political arenas during the recent years. The association between translation and feminism became feasible as a result of some conventional worries and fixations with language: doubt over prevailing orders and chains of command, as well as gendered social functions, of imperatives outlining loyalty. Sherry Simons (1996, p.80) contends that feminism and translation are both concerned by the manner in which “’secondariness’ comes to defined and canonized". Further, she argues that feminism and translation are both instruments for an analytical interpretation of the language differences. Thus, the function of the translator is to know the ways in which variations in terms of history, society and sexuality are communicated in language; and to free them up to the prospective language addressees. The moment recognition over the expressions of dominance has been achieved, language can then be utilized to alter or modify them in terms of concepts, syntactic, and terminologies. Nevertheless, interference may work either way. Considering that language is a potent political means, many strong feminist advocates' writings have confronted the risk of being politically rectified or tweaked by translators who have a strong and devoted involvement in politics. Conversely, because of the experimental nature of these texts, it posits a requisite for the translators to bring about a firm and steady technical modernizations in translation. Feminists have also expressed that the literary standard, by tradition, described the artistic value according to the creations of male writers. Thus, many of the earlier literatures written by women writers have gone astray in patriarchy and necessitated to be uncovered, which is to be read by the literary critics and absorbed in the history of literature. Translations have so instigated to play a significant part in the promotion of such works. Since women translators, authors, and the age were factually not known, lots of the works produced by translators contained criticism and footnotes, which contextualized the source of the writings and deliberating the dilemmas that these translations could bring about. The venture to recover the lost intellectual works of women has led to the translation of some compilations of poetry, memoirs, and many collections of women's literary works. Gender in the Exemplification of Translation It is widely recognized that the translation has extensively been defined through the use of symbolic representations. These normally render the fight for power over the writing. Translations are oftentimes expressed in metaphorical concepts. Two of the most famous symbols are the "property" and the "clothing". In the former paradigm, the author is considered to be the property-owner and the translator being the tenant. In the second paradigm, the author is being presented as dressing in new clothes. However, most metaphorical descriptions demonstrate that the translation has been greatly smeared with gender. Many preambles and detailed writings show correlation between the author and its translator, but deem the original text and its translation as gendered. Lori Chamberlain (1992, p.66), in his book Gender and the Metaphorics of Translation, provides a complete description of the chauvinist figurative languages used constantly throughout the decades to define the dualistic linkages between author and translator, original and translated texts, wherein the author and the original texts is considered to be more influential. The disagreement between produced and translated works establishes the way cultural standards work. In early Western culture, and rarely until today, originality and creativeness is reserved for men, while women are credited for subordinate functions. This is a method of sustaining authority contacts and previously-formed margins; Chamberlain (1992, p.66) contends that "aesthetic problem is represented in terms of sex, family and the state, and what is consistently at issue is power". He adds that translation is lavishly oblique, so delimited that it menaces to expunge the distinction between "production and reproduction" Chamberlain, 1992, p.66), which is crucial to the formation of power. The Invisibility of Gender in Translation The translator's invisibility pertains to the translator's condition and movement in modern Anglo-American culture (Venuti, 1986, p.6). In perspective, it has two equally and jointly established sensations. Of one is the illusionistic sense of speech of the translator's individual maneuvering of the English language. The other pertains to the practice of reading, interpreting and assessing translations. In so far as the former facet is concerned, the illusion of translucence that is retained in perspective: a sense of fluent dialogue of the translator's effort to guarantee simple readability by simply sticking to the contemporary practice, keeping up the constant literary composition and arrangement and establishing an exact connotation. Venuti (1986, p.148) argues that as translation becomes more fluent, the more invisible the translator becomes, and thus, making the writer or the meaning of the foreign text more visible in effect. As for the latter facet, such customs of translation afford the readers with self-absorbed, egotistical encounter of acknowledging their culture within another culture. Venuti (1986, p.67) contends that in order to construct apparent or transparent discussions and therefore to guarantee invisibility, the translator shall utilize taming schemes or approaches in order to carry the foreign text down to the conceptual and literary standards and rules working in the prospective culture. Moreover, the translator's invisibility is ascertained by the idiosyncratic perception authorship, suggesting that the author is the sole and original author of the text. Invisibility and the Demise of the Translator As discussed beforehand, such perception was analyzed and criticized by feminist translators who regarded themselves as co-creators of the translated work. This shows the demise of the translator and the birth of the “translations’ effect”, the symbol that every translator, as a sexualized entity, put on the translated work. Women translators desires for the acknowledgement and appreciation of their literary works and uniqueness. They stress that individual characteristics influences writings, which include translations. That is the reason why translations produced by advocates of feminism are noteworthy for metatexts: academic writings that contextualize the works' sources, bibliographies, and remarks, which have no bearing whatsoever in so far as the value of the author's and the translator's individual contributions are concerned. Normally, feminist translations comprise the translator's reaction or retorts to the writing being translated, as a portion of the recurring citation to herself, gender, and traditional frameworks as factors on her creations. Although, at times such reactions make up the struggle the feminist translator has to contend with in terms of dealing with a source writing the disagrees the translator's background. The literary styles of the authors, particularly those containing wordplay, pave the way for assortment of interpretations and therefore toward insubordinate feminist standpoints. Narrative and Case Study: The Case of Huda Al Sharawy Memories Huda Al Sharawy represents the feminist counterpart to Qasim Amin’s hold of the “westernized patriarchy” (Lewis, n.d., p. 10). She was borne in 1879 to a well-off family. She was taught of both French and Turkish, eventually becoming proficient of both languages. In spite of her advantaged background, she remembers a miserable youth; dejection transpired during her early identification of the social discrimination between girls and boy (Lewis, n.d., p.10). Al Sharawy remembered that her brother was afforded much opportunity than she was, and started to recognize that such special or say "favored" treatment was contingent to sexuality: his brother's masculinity (Abdel-Kader, 1987, p. 82). For Al Sharawy, one of the most remarkable moments of her life was when she got married at the age of thirteen to an adult gentleman, who at the time was in his forties (Lewis, n.d., p.10). Similar to conventional marriages amongst the Egyptian selected class, she had no chance to differ against the marriage, which resulted into an agonizing married life (Abdel-Kader, 1987, p. 82). Reflecting on her literary works, it is during this age of her life that strengthened her nuisances over inequalities based on gender. Despite her youth, she started to work and blend together with the French women in Cairo. Not long after, she began to join in numerous "salons" that pointed towards becoming a spot wherein women could converse regarding various social and political matters (Abdel-Kader, 1987, p. 83). Subjects like "universal suffrage, seclusion, and divorce laws took primacy at such discussions" (Lewis, n.d., p. 10). Furthermore, these assemblies were likewise significant mainly for the establishment and expansion of public links and social groups that had not been in existence in the harem. This conversation among different dissents - European, Arab, and Turkish women - provided Al Sharawy's initial experience with western feminism (Lewis, n.d., p. 11). Her choice to rather renounce her Islamic belief by "unveiling" has been ascribed to the motivation of a French feminist who was nearly near and dear to Al Sharawy (Badran, 1987, p.66). It is crucial to note that Al Sharawy, as elite in the Egyptian community, accepted the organization and connection with the culture and tradition of Europe. As the leading and privileged Egyptian class often acquired from the imperialist encounter in Egypt, they have become more motivated to imitate or exalt European culture as extremely erudite as compared to the indigent class (Ahmed, 1992, p.147). This suggests that Egyptians accepted the employment of a western thought and attitude in order to obtain evolution and advancement. Sharawy and other women feminists were deeply tangled in the revolution of 1919, and reflected their difficulty in attainting gender equality from the nationalist’s fight for independence (Abdel-Kader, 1987, p.88). Sharawy was an important figure in the advocacy to fight for gender equality. As a matter of fact, she founded the Egyptian Feminist Union, an association that would prolong the fight for gender equality. The women associated with the union did not stop in advocating for their rights to gender equality and to eradicate their “disadvantage status” (Abdel-Kader, 1987, p.92). The organization’s focus on equality in both communal and private areas is not just an effort for individuality in Egypt, but at the same time, it resembled the influence of Western feminism. Nevertheless, Sharawy’s involvement with the western women and her adoption of the western-type feminism caused her detractors to infer that her feminism was still a “colonial means” (Abdel-Kader, 1987, p.95). While there had been no indicative evidence of Sharawy’s obtainment of success in advocating western feminism, yet, this would have become a focal point to another feministic route, that is, through literature. Margot Badran’s Harem Years: Memoirs of the Egyptian Feminist attempted to avoid predating conceptions about harem (or harim) such that it uses a more unaccustomed term, which according to Kahf (2000, p. 165), is more desirable for the following reasons: (1) to use an unacquainted term pushes out the anticipated content of the piece; it blurs the possibility of a categorical notion over the material by leaving the reader establish and discover his or her understanding of the word “harem”; (2) Badran intervened by developing a “neutral” literary ground, that is, rather an act of precluding the focus of the material to be directed towards a certain gender classification; hence, upholding feminist movement in such a literally subtle manner; (3) lastly, the term “harem” is not as functioning in Arabic than it is in English. This implies that Badran aims to elaborate the pervasiveness of sexualized society Huda Sharawi had during her time, and the feminist movement she spearheaded, which supported for social change in Egypt. Conclusion There are aspects in translation that, more than just grammatical technicalities touches on the cultural and political influences in translation, such that, feminism has been employed in most literary works produced by women translators. Languages may differ in the way the various classification of gender is instituted in every philological and grammatical scheme. Furthermore, interpretations by translators of every literary work may be affected by their expectations of the pertinent cultures, which is contingent to what is signified by gender. References Abdel-Kader, S. (1987). Egyptian women in a changing society, 1899-1987. London, UK: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Ahmed, L. (1992). Women and gender in Islam. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Badran, M. (1987). 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The linguistic representation of women and men 2, 251-279. Pauwels, A. (2003). Linguistic sexism and feminist linguistic activism. In J. Holmes & M. Meyerhoff (Ed.). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing. Simon, S. (1996). Gender in translation. Culture and identity and the politics of transmission. London &New York: Routledge. Snell-Hornby, M. (1990). Linguistic transcoding or cultural transfer: A critique of translation theory in Germany. In: S. Bassnett & A. Lefevere, (eds). London, UK. Surugio, O. (n.d.). Some strategies used in feminist translation pratice. Retrieved from: http://litere.usv.ro/pagini/Volume_manifestari_studentesti/CONSENSUS%20lucrari/11.pdf Venuti, L. (1995). The translator's invisibility: A history of translation. New York, NY: Routledge. Venuti, L. (1986). A Translator’s invisibility. Criticism: A Quarterly for Literature and Arts, 28(2), 179-212. Von Flotow, L. (2001). Gender in Translation: The Issues Go on. 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