What Changes Emerge when Translating Feminist Literature from English into Polish?

Abstract

Monika Andrzejewska

The aim of this essay is to investigate to what extent gender matters in translation. The discussion centres on the translation of English feminist writings into Polish: „A Room of One’s Own”, „Orlando” and „Written on the Body”. Unlike English, Polish is a highly inflected language, which requires gendered choices in the language used to describe characters. Thus, there is a risk that the translation may distort the original meaning of the whole text. I will begin by introducing some concepts of feminist theory of translation, which draw attention to gender issues. Then, I will analyse the Polish translations of books in question. The main argument of this essay is that because translating sexual ambiguity into Polish is impossible, feminist translators may take it to their advantage to transfer their own attitudes. This ultimately may shape the overall perception of the book and the author by a given readership.

“Those of you who are women this will not apply -- you are yourselves the problem”. (Freud 1933:113)

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