Gender And Translation:Comparing Two Translation Versions Of Gone With The Wind From The Perspective Of Feminist Translation

The development of feminist movement and the cultural turn in translation studies introduced the feminist perspective into translation studies. Feminist translation theory emphasizes the subjectivity of the translator and proposes to use translation as a method to intervene the texts, so as to reach the political pursuit of strengthening the voice of women and subverting the male dominance. In China, the studies of feminist translation have slowed down after the early bloom and have some limitations, such as lack of scientific analytical framework and insufficient attention on the role of the translator’s gender.This thesis explores the role of the translator’s gender from the feminist perspective under a systematic and scientific analytical framework. Based on Mona Baker’s model of translation equivalence, the framework includes analysis on equivalence at word level, equivalence above word level, sentential equivalence, textual equivalence and pragmatical equivalence. The research materials are collected from the novel Gone with the Wind and its two Chinese versions, one translated by a female translator and the other by three male translators. Through the research, the thesis tries to answer three research questions:(1) are there differences between female and male translators when they deal with texts with gender implications?(2) Are the differences motivated by their gender?(3) Can we call the female translator’s version as one of feminist translation?The conclusions of the thesis only apply to the cases studied in this thesis:(1) there are obvious differences between female and male translators in the translation of texts with gender implications.(2) The gender of the translator plays an important role in causing the differences. Specifically, the female translator tends to highlight women’s unequal position; weaken or change the discriminatory implications towards women; strengthen the implied feminist values; and enhance the negative image of men.(3) Although the female version in the study shows certain feminist features, it is not appropriate to categorize it as a version of feminist translation.