Translating feminism Cover Image

Tłumaczenie feminizmu
Translating feminism

Author(s): Agnieszka Gajewska
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: feminism; the English language; sensivity as a category; regionalism of cultural studies; politics of translation; rhetoric of nondifferentiation; interlingual transgression; Narcyza Żmichowska; Zofia Żeleńska; Debora Vogel; Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna

Summary/Abstract: Pointing to manifold and long-lasting connections between feminism and translation, the article first presents a selection of multilingual writers (Narcyza Żmichowska and Deborah Vogel), translators (Zofia Żeleńska and Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna) and translation commentators (Joanna Lisek and Karolina Szymaniak) to ponder why the work of early Polish feminists is neglected. It seems that one of the reasons might be the current colonization of Polish feminist discourse by English. For ethical reasons it would be advisable to recommend a certain sensitivity to locality in feminist translation studies and a recognition of regionalism in culture studies. The theoretical considerations include two issues: the potential hermaphroditism of the Polish language when its users are women and the ‘scandal of „another’s speech”,’ a polyphony and a constitutive lack of autonomy (a feminist discussion of Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory). From this perspective it becomes visible that linguistic choices made by the translator are always individual one-time solutions which resist homogenization, paradigms or (theoretical) generalizations.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 24
  • Page Range: 7-18
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Polish