Gender Awareness In Translation

Women's movement, which rose in late 1960s and early 1970s, had great repercussions both in society and academy. The incessant spread and development of feminist thought urged people to reexamine the concept of gender. One of the outstanding contributions this interaction between feminism and academy made is to bring gender awareness into translation studies. Scholars, especially feminists, who had lived long-termed under patriarchal influence, turned their attention to academy and translation studies, besides their awareness of their inferior social status. So, gender differences, their expressions in language, and also their representations in translations become feminist favorite topics. Women's movement increased people's gender awareness, which made the patriarchal linguistic forms vacillate and also improved the traditional prejudice upon translators and translations. At the same time, readers had more access to some lost and misinterpreted translations. A number of notable women works were also uncovered. In fact, women's movement impels the reflection upon the unreasonability of tradition translation theory and provides a new gender perspective. However, like all the newborn theories, feminist translation theory also has its limitations and side effects. This paper will demonstrate feminist influence upon translation studies and the emergence and limitations of feminist translation theory, in order to give readers a further understanding about gender awareness in translation. And it also connects translation with linguistics, literature and social problems, exploring the relationship between gender issues and translation studies.