Publications

Publication details [#13942]

Wolf, Michaela. 2003. Feminist thick translation: a challenge to the formation of feminist cultural identity? Tradução e Comunicação 12.
Publication type
Article in jnl/bk
Publication language
English

Abstract

In cultural anthropology, Clifford Geertz views culture dialectically as a historically evolving product and as a determinant of social interaction. Consequently, his practice of thick description follows the conception of construing culture as a text, which is something to be read and interpreted. This concept of thick description has been applied to a translation method denominated thick translation, which enriches the text with annotations and accompanying glosses thus locating it in a rich cultural and linguistic context (Appiah, 1993: 817). In this paper it will be argued that if feminist translation – however defined – is supposed to contribute to the formation of a feminist cultural identity, the practice of thick translation in the feminist context helps to view translation first as a primary creative activity (Homi Bhabha) and second as a gendered, political event. Thus, thick translation – not least in a pedagogical framework – is an important feature in the question of whether translation should be seen as an instrument in the raising of a feminist consciousness. This function of the practice of thick translation will be illustrated and discussed by means of the analysis of the translation of Mary Daly’s Gyn/Ecology, one of the most discussed 'classics' of feminist theory.
Source : Abstract in journal