Interpreting Gender Differences In Translation From The Feminist Perspectives

Steven Seymour, translator of the former US president Carter, once said,"Translations are like women, when they are pretty, chances are they won’t be faithful"(Godard,1996:23). For this statement, people may have different opinions, but it tells us from another perspective that translation and women are closely connected with each other. During the1980s, the study of translation theories underwent the second turn-cultural turn. This turn made translation studies no longer limited to two languages, and people began to pay attention to political, historical, social and cultural aspects in translation activities, like publishing policy, patron, literature criterion, gender differences, racial differences, etc. As a result, the research field of translation has shifted from text to all kinds of factors that may influence translation, and the feminist perspective is one of these trends. Along with the vigorous development of feminism in Western countries, gender as a standpoint of feminism has extended into the field of language as well as culture. Alice Walker, one of the most famous writers in American history, pays attention to black women, and she herself is a famous feminist writer too. The Color Purple is one of her masterpieces in which she shapes a female image of strong and treacherous consciousness as well as fighting spirit full of female’s special language and sincerity. This thesis aims to analyze the differences between male translators and female translators in interpreting the same work by using feminist translation theories, and explores the gender differences in translation that will be beneficial to the translation of women’s works in the future.