Beauty and the Politics of Translation
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As writing practices, translations are informed by the tensions and stereotypes (among them beauty) that define cultural representation, and this mediation does not stand above ideology, but works through it. Translations can then provide valuable information about practices of domination or subversion since they have been (and still are) powerful agents in ideological programs. ‘Gender’ as an analytical category entered the field of translation studies in the late 1980s, bringing new understanding to translation ethics. The gendering of translation, however, dates back at least to the seventeenth century with the adage les belles infidèles (literally meaning ‘unfaithful beauties’) claiming that translations, like women, must be either beautiful or faithful. The use of sexual imagery throughout the history of translation reflects the view that translation is subservient and ‘feminine’, as opposed to the all-powerful original text usually presented in masculine terms. The relationship between author and translator, original and translation, as shown in numerous prefaces and critical texts, is frequently sexualized, fidelity set against beauty, ethics as opposed to elegance. Metaphors of translation reveal patterns of thought used as the foundation of discourses about translation in various cultural contexts, thus driving translation practices and strategies. Contemporary feminist thinking about translation has made gender the site of a consciously transformative project, reframing conditions of textual authority. Reclaiming the metaphor of les belles infidèles, Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood calls her feminist translation strategies ‘re-belles et infidèles’, thus changing the celebrated beauties into rebels. In her view and that of other feminist translators, issues of sexism and the silencing of women in history, contributing to their inferior status in the world, need not only be pointed out, but also corrected with deliberate feminist interventions as rewriting in translation so as to change the politics of representation of women in both language and culture.