| The traditional translation theory is based on the idea: translation is just a kindof mechanical transition from one language to another. But the group of feminists,who formed in80’s twenty’s century, thought that translation is the process oftransition of culture and language, the expression of the translator and the rewriting ofa version, which could apply to the second language. In their mind, translation was nolonger a passive language transition, but a writing practice influenced by some culturefactors and ideologies, which the translators were working on actively. Feministtranslation has restated the basic problems from the gender angle of views, such as thehypostasis of translation, the standard of translation, the relationship between theoriginal and the translation, etc. Meanwhile, they completely overthrew the traditional“faithfulness, equivalence†of the translation. Feminist translators emphasize thecreative adaptation and even rewriting of the original in the perspective of feminismand have put forward their relevant translation strategies, such as supplement, preface&footnoting and hijacking. The birth of feminist translation theory has undoubtedlypositive and practical significance. It provides a new angle for people to re-think thedeficiency in the traditional translation theory, such as the supreme authority of theoriginal text, the translator’s invisibility, and fidelity as the highest standard fortranslation. It has not only broadened people’s research field, but also injected freshblood for translation study. However, some feminist translators’ radical behavior intranslation makes the other extreme—the supreme authority of the translator/women, invisibility and even death of the original writer/men. Over-emphasis on thetranslator/women’s subjectivity, not only has caused a certain degree of negativeimpact on both translation theory and practice, but also fails to correspond with thegoal of building a harmonious society in China. Therefore, the original writer and thetranslator, men and women should co-exist and cooperate in order to reach one kindof common prosperity. Nowadays, scholars and researchers in China have paidextensive attention to feminist translation theory. However, their research has mostlyfocused on its contributions to translation studies. Its theoretical limitations havereceived little attention, let alone corresponding solutions. Some scholars have everintroduced androgynous theory, which has played a positive role in the improvementof feminist translation theory.The feminist translation has developed in the late1980s and has had so manydifferences with the traditional translation theories, but feminist translation hasoffered a unique perspective and instruction of methodology. That’s why it’snecessary to make a further research of the feminist translation theory and make thetheory be the supplement of the translation theory, the translation practice and thetranslation methods. |
