Towards a Feminist Translator Studies

Intersectional Activism in Translation and Publishing

Helen Vassallo author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:17th Oct '22

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Towards a Feminist Translator Studies cover

This pioneering work advocates for a shift toward inclusivity in the UK translated literature landscape, investigating and challenging unconscious bias around women in translation and building on existing research highlighting the role of translators as activists and agents and the possibilities for these new theoretical models to contribute to meaningful industry change.

The book sets out the context for the new subdiscipline of feminist translator studies, positing this as an essential mechanism to work towards diversity in the translated literature sector of the publishing industry. In a series of five case studies that each exemplify a key component of the feminist translator studies "toolkit", Vassallo draws on exclusive interviews with a range of activist translators and publishers, setting these in dialogue with contemporary perspectives on feminism and translation to propose a new agent-based model of feminist translation practice. In synthesising these perspectives, Vassallo makes a powerful argument for questioning existing structures in the translated literature publishing system which perpetuate bias and connects these conversations to wider social movements towards promoting demonstrable change in the industry.

This book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of translation studies and publishing, as well as for the various agents involved in promoting translated literature in the UK and beyond.

"Animated by case studies of five risk-taking independent presses, Helen Vassallo's Towards a Feminist Translator Studies brings the agency of translators and editors into sharp focus and convincingly argues in favor of an activist approach in challenging the patriarchal status quo of translated literature."

—Margaret Carson, City University of New York (cofounder, Women in Translation Tumblr)

"Towards a Feminist Translator Studies is a timely and illuminating analysis of the role played by independent UK publishers in improving the intersectional gender balance of literature translated into English. This is a welcome contribution to our understanding of the contemporary British publishing scene, and also a rallying cry to do more: to further diversify publishers' lists; to think carefully about who translates, simultaneously challenging received wisdoms about directionality in translation; to broaden our own reading by actively seeking out new and unfamiliar literary horizons."

- Chantal Wright, Reader in Translation as a Literary Practice, University of Warwick (Founder, Warwick Prize for Women in Translation)

ISBN: 9780367469658

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 371g

160 pages