1 Introduction

1.1 Aim of the study

This investigation embraces both a theoretical and an empirical purpose.

The theoretical purpose is to contribute to the construction of a new
model of analysis of ideology and gender in translation to be used for
future research in the field of translation studies. Empirical evidence is
needed in order to support my methodology, and the purpose of Part II of
this work is to test my hypothesis through the comparison of source texts
(STs) and target texts (TTs).
The primary objective is therefore to establish a comparative frame-
work for the contrastive analysis of the translation strategies of male and
female translators. It should be noted that the case studies proposed in
this work are ‘pilots’ and are intended to test the framework but from
which general conclusions may not be drawn.
I will adopt a sociocultural approach to translation according to
which this activity is regarded as a communicative process that takes
place within a social context. Language, a very powerful tool, is at the
core of this activity. It is not only a tool for communication but also a
manipulative tool, an instrument of control and power. Power can un-
doubtedly be expressed through ideologies, and ideologies are clearly
linked to language because its use is the commonest form of social
behaviour. The relationship between these three issues may help people
understand better how language contributes to the domination of some
people by others (Hodge and Kress, 1993). This sort of domination also
has to be understood in terms of the appropriation or distortion of ori-
ginal texts when they are rendered by translators who display a clear
ideological positioning, as in the case of feminist translators.
Translation can be studied mainly from three different perspectives,
a text-based approach, a process-based approach, and a function-based
approach. My ST/TT comparison model of analysis can be placed within
the first perspective, the text-based approach to translation, the aim of

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which is to prioritize the linguistic make-up of texts. In addition to
analysing linguistic patterns, the function-based approach will also be
taken into account. This focuses on the social and historical aspects of
translation as a product and thus studies the impact of the TT on its own
environment.

1.2 Hypothesis

The underlying hypothesis is that men and women translate differently,

and my initial assumption is that some translations might be ideological-
ly modified or mediated by their translators. The translators’ ideological
positioning may be a result of differences in both their sex and that of the
ST authors, different text types chosen for translation, and/or different
socio-cultural backgrounds.
This hypothesis takes into consideration the fact that every ST re-
flects the author’s ideology or personal viewpoints which are encoded in
both micro- and macrolinguistic structures. From the translation point of
view, this is a point which could have serious implications in that the
text might be ideologically slanted by the translator. This, of course, can
be done intentionally or unintentionally. Some translation strategies
could modify the ST author’s ideology either unconsciously, because of
a lack of professional competence, a misunderstanding of the ST mes-
sage or as a consequence of cultural differences between the ST and the
TT, or consciously, in order to adapt the ST ideology to that of the TC
readership, or to avoid being offensive towards the TC community, or
directly to oppose or challenge the ST language and culture, particularly
in the case of sensitive texts, such as political, feminist or religious texts.
The sex of the translator or of the ST author and/or the ST typology
might be the reasons behind these strategies. In order to test this
hypothesis it is my intention to establish a comparative framework who-
se function is to compare translation strategies of male and female
translators. Nevertheless, it should be noted that general conclusions
cannot be drawn from such an analysis since the case studies used in this
work are ‘pilots’ and are meant to test my comparative framework.

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1.3 Previous research on ideology and gender in translation

Theorists who have engaged in the study of ideology in translation

regard the latter as a powerful means of reflecting and transmitting the
former. Amongst the most innovative and influential in this respect are
Fawcett (1995, 1997, and 2001); Venuti (1992, 1995, and 1998); Hatim
and Mason (1990 and 1997).
Fawcett points out that researching on the issue of ideology in
translation can be a difficult task in that people tend to consider all
human activities as ideologically motivated (2001:106). Taking as an
example the ‘macerated Malraux’, he shows us that ideological altera-
tions may be a result of the publishers’ or other authorities’ ideological
positioning, of the pressure exerted by a certain genre as well as of the
translators’ socio-cultural backgrounds (1997).
Venuti states that ‘any language use is a site for power relations’
(1998:9). He takes a politicized view of translation, in line with Marxist
philosophy, according to which he defines ideology as something
negative in terms of unequal power relations. Stating that weak cultures
are dominated by strong cultures, he introduces the concepts of
foreignizing and domesticating translations. Domesticating translation
means appropriation of the foreign ST and its adaptation to the TC
norms and conventions (i.e. linguistic and/or cultural conventions).
Foreignizing translation consists in retaining some aspects of the
foreignness of the original.
Hatim and Mason claim that social, political, or ideological
positioning often exerts a strong influence on both lexical-semantic and
grammatical-syntactic linguistic structures. They introduce the concept
of mediation as a way of detecting and measuring ideology in
translation. Hatim and Mason base their analyses on solid linguistic fea-
tures such as lexis (over-lexicalization), syntax (agent deletion, nomina-
lization) and cohesion (recurrence, collocation, thematic structure, transi-
tivity, and lexical cohesion).
Other important studies in the field of ideology and translation have
taken place within a postcolonial context, as in the cases of Robinson
(1997a) and Cheyfitz (1991).

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Robinson states that the activity of translation in the past has been used
as a way ‘to control and educate and generally shape colonized popula-
tions’(1997a:6). Cheyfitz’s interest falls within the category of trans-
lation as a cultural-political channel of imperialism. His study clearly
illustrates the way colonizers made use of ethnographic translation in
order to dominate the colonized population.
Research in the field of gender and translation studies has always
dealt mainly with feminist translations and their role in the field of
translation studies from both a linguistic and an ethical point of view.
Feminist translation theorists engaged in a resistance struggle to fight
against the patriarchal ideology through the activity of translation. Their
translation theory can be divided into three main parts, as also pointed
out by Robinson (1997b). Firstly, writings and research on the need to
recuperate ‘the lost or neglected history of women as translators and
translation theorists’ (ibid.:236); amongst the most influential theorists in
this respect are Krontiris (1992), Robinson (1995) and Simon (1995,
1996). A second group includes attacks on patriarchal ideology and its
influence on ‘mainstream Western translation theory’ (ibid.); Lori
Chamberlain is the most important theorist in this field of research.
Finally, there are studies aimed at establishing an intelligible and solid
feminist translation practice, within which one can mention important
scholars such as Maier (1980, 1984, 1989); Lotbinière-Harwood (1991),
Godard (1983, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c, 1995); Simon
(1995, 1996); Levine (1991); Díaz-Diocaretz (1985); von Flotow (1991,
1997, 1998); Anderson (1995).
Researching in gender studies, I realized that there exist very few
studies which have looked systematically at gender-related differences in
translation, although there have been several investigations into the
differences in language use between males and females. Amongst the
most influential are Thorne and Henley (1975); Thorne, Kramarae and
Henley (1983); Coates (1986); Coates and Cameron (1988); Tannen
(1993, 1994, 1995). These investigations carried out within the field of
sociolinguistics and other related linguistic branches have shown that
women and men speak differently. I intend to determine whether they
also translate differently, perhaps for reasons to be found in the field of
ideology in translation.

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1.4 The present study

This study goes further than previous critiques (listed below) that have
proved, so far, to be unsupported by empirical evidence.
My investigation takes three main issues into account: ideology,
gender, and translation. These three research interests are not completely
disconnected, as they might seem at first. The relationship between them
will be critically discussed in Chapter 2 of this work.
The idea of writing this book was conceived in the light of two
main considerations. First of all, there exist studies on differences in
speech between males and females but no studies have been carried out
so far within the discipline of translation studies in order to explore the
phenomenon of women translated by men and vice versa. There have
been only some criticisms addressed to male translators but they are not
supported by a solid linguistic analysis (Simons, 1983; Lotbinière-
Harwood, 1991; Keefe, 1994; Klaw, 1995; von Flotow, 1997). Secondly,
it was interesting to see how one of these criticisms, the one addressed
against Howard Parshley, the English translator who translated one of
the most influential and militant feminist works, Simone de Beauvoir’s
Le Deuxième Sexe, was not investigated further through empirical
analysis and did not lead to any other study on this topic.
His translation was accused of reflecting a strong ideological posi-
tioning, since he deleted some parts of the chapters and also the names of
seventy-eight important women (Simons, 1983:560). In the second volu-
me Parshley deleted nearly twelve per cent of Beauvoir’s quotations and
in general distorted her texts through significant deletions of important
historical events and mistranslations of some key concepts (ibid.).

1.5 Limitations

One has also to be aware of the limitations of this research. First of all,
the corpus selected (four STs and four TTs) is too small to allow this
study to be exhaustive. Second, it was not possible to compare a TT with

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another version of the same ST since only one translation of each ST has
been carried out. Third, the lack of solid biographical information about
the translators’ lives and professional careers makes it difficult to gain a
deeper insight into their work and competence in translation. Fourth, the
examples used for each analysis have been selected according to their
potential ideological load in their respective contexts. Because of time
and space restrictions I had to select only the most relevant examples to
suit the purpose of my comparative analysis. I had therefore to leave
many other examples unaddressed for the time being.
For these reasons, the results of my contrastive analysis are not
regarded as being universal since they are restricted to my specific model
of analysis, to my language pair and, above all, are based on a small cor-
pus. However, this work is aimed at providing a theoretical framework
for further investigations focusing on the relationship of gender issues
and ideology in the field of translation studies.

1.6 Methodology and model of analysis

The model proposed here is based on a comparative analysis of transla-

tions from Italian into English.
The analysis attempts to locate ideological shifts or changes that
take place in translation and are reflected linguistically in the TT since
translation strategies and decisions made by the translators may result in
shifts in translation and points of differences between the original and
the translated text.
Hence the analysis will discuss strategies applied by the translators
and their effects on the quality and understanding of the text. A reference
to translation quality assessment is incorporated in this model to show
how successful some of the translators’ strategies are compared to
others.
This book is divided into two main parts. In Part I, the theory and
methodology are worked out. Addressing a number of topics and issues
that arise in an investigation of the kind outlined here, this part is meant
as a theoretical framework not only for the present study, but also for

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similar future research aimed at covering a broader range of text types
and language pairs. In Part II, the main hypothesis of this study is in-
vestigated by looking at and comparing a selection of Italian prose nar-
ratives and their translation into English. A detailed comparison of the
source and target language versions of four books is performed founded
on the theoretical discussion, the description of ideology in language use
and in translation as well as the description of Italian-English contrasts,
and the linguistic frameworks for analysis worked out in Part I. The re-
sults will show whether the hypothesis formulated above can be verified
at corpus level and whether more differentiated conclusions can be
drawn. Throughout the practical analysis the strategies employed by the
translators, the motivation underlying their choices, and some translation
problems are discussed.
The examples chosen for this analysis will be selected, and interpreted,
on subjective criteria based on the theoretical considerations discussed in
Part I.
In order to facilitate my comparative analysis I have worked out an
analytical model based on a critical contrastive text linguistic approach
(CCTL approach). This approach is organized in four levels of analysis
or types of equivalence in order to ensure that no level of analysis is left
out. The intention is to analyse the text moving from large units such as
paragraphs to smaller units such as individual words.

1.7 The criteria for selection of the texts

The texts which have been included in my data analysis have been
selected on the basis of a specific criterion, that is, to evaluate whether
men and women translate differently. As already stated above, both the
examples selected for this analysis and the interpretation of them depend
on the analyst’s subjectivity.
The starting point here is the analysis of the translation of two
feminist Italian novels by English-language translators. However, since
this is to be a comparative analysis, other typologies of translation and

25
other elements of comparisons have to be employed in order to draw
more objective conclusions on the translators’ competence and ideologi-
cal positioning. Therefore, taking as the starting point a major feminist
novelist, Dacia Maraini, there will be two different approaches to the
translation of her novels:

1. Translations of two of her novels by both a male and a female

translator. It should be noted that the same novel has not been
translated by both of them, but both books are feminist novels
dealing with women’s conditions in society and women’s body
and sexuality.

2. In order to evaluate whether men and women translate

differently, it is essential to analyse also how the same trans-
lators (both male and female) have translated male authors’
works.

This further analysis will allow us to evaluate any patterns of gender

differences in written translations, although conclusions will always be
limited to the texts concerned.

Figure 1 is intended to illustrate the progression of this selection.

DACIA MARAINI

STUART HOOD FRANCES FRENAYE

PIER PAOLO PASOLINI CARLO LEVI

Figure 1: Choice of ST authors and translators

More information on translators’ lives and careers will be given in

Chapter 5. A number of problems arose when the texts were selected and
they can be classified in three different categories: 1) text type con-

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siderations, 2) geographical considerations, and 3) historical period and
temporal restrictions.

1.7.1 Text type considerations: the case of feminist texts

Defining a feminist text continues to be controversial and problematic

within the field of translation studies. Women’s writing is not the same
as feminist writing. Moi (1989), for instance, carried out a study within
this framework and came to the conclusion that a clear-cut distinction
should be made between feminist, feminine and female. These distin-
ctions will be further analysed in Chapter 4.3.2.
In order to provide a valid framework within which a text could be
assessed in terms of ‘feminist work’, I shall refer to Eagleton’s (1996)
theory according to which the reader is the only person who is able to
determine whether a text is feminist or not. She claims that this process

is mainly subjective and thus it is difficult to have an exact definition of

‘feminist text’. She nevertheless supplies a few statements which will be
challenged and fully explained in Chapter 4.3.2 in line with the purpose
of my investigation.
Finally, some critics’ assessments of Maraini’s feminist novels will
be referred to within this work. They will help us better assess whether
the novels chosen can be defined as feminist pieces of work.

1.7.2 Geographical considerations: positioning of the ST and TT

The present empirical analysis is aimed at evaluating two different

cultural settings, namely the Italian and the English language settings. I
will take into account both British and American English since one of
the translators chosen for this analysis is British and the other is Ame-
rican. The geographical positioning of the TT plays a very important role
in the selection of the texts since the development of feminism in one
country differs from that in another country in terms of specific political,
historical and social factors. At the same time, other socio-cultural, poli-
tical and religious factors may differ from one country to another and

27
may therefore interfere with or influence the ST author as well as the
translator.
The reason for choosing Italian and English as the language pair for
my comparative analysis is that I was raised in a bilingual context
(British and Italian) and this allowed me to gain considerable knowledge
of both the English and Italian language and culture. For these reasons, I
feel able to carry out a comparative analysis between these two lan-
guages and cultures. Unfortunately, I have less knowledge of American
culture, although in the past I have carried out research on American fe-
minism.

1.7.3 Historical periods and temporal restrictions

Both STs and TTs are characteristic of their period and this might be a
‘problem’ from a translation point of view, as I shall explain below.
The two feminist novels that I have chosen to analyse, La vacanza
(1962) and L’età del malessere (1963) by Dacia Maraini, belong to a
particular period in the history of Italian feminism, that is the second
phase as defined by Wood (1995). During this time important rights,
such as abortion and divorce, were finally won and became legal in Italy
and women started to feel more confident about expressing their
sexuality publicly.
Carlo Levi’s memoir Cristo si è fermato a Eboli is concerned with
an important historical period and a specific political regime, that of
Fascism. This memoir was published in 1945 and it combines many
political, religious, magic, and social issues, where the main stress is on
politics.
Teorema was published by Pasolini in 1968, the same year as the
student revolt, and it also combines many different aspects of human life,
always in opposition to one another, such as wealth and poverty or
power and slavery. Religion is the main theme of the novel and is re-
presented in a very controversial way.
Since a translation involves not only transferring a meaning from
one language to another, but also dealing with different cultures in
specific historical periods, temporal restrictions cannot be neglected and
are, to a certain extent, closely bound to the underlying assumptions of

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this study of ideology and gender in translation. By temporal restrictions
I mean the settings of the events and the time of composition as well as
the time of translation. Further explanations and a more detailed analysis
of the historical periods of each of those novels will be dealt with in Part
II, Chapter 5.

1.8 Ethics, ideology, and translation: a few considerations

According to the theory of professional ethics, translators should never

distort the form and/or the meaning of the ST by expressing their
ideology or personal viewpoint in their translations.
However, translators are human beings and as such have emotions
and opinions and live within a specific socio-political and cultural
environment that may differ slightly or remarkably from the source
culture (SC) environment. It is hard to believe that all translations are
ideology-free, as is also acknowledged by Gentzler (2002). Robinson
claims that:

The translator has no personal point of view that has any relevance at all to the act
of translation. […] translators, like all professionals, want to take pride in what
they do; if a serious clash between their personal ethics and an externally defined
professional ethics makes it difficult or impossible to feel that pride, they will
eventually be forced to make dramatic decisions about where and under what
conditions they want to work. (1997b:31)

Feminist translators are a case in point. They consciously change the ST

form and/or meaning in order to free the text from patriarchal language
and mentality. Can we therefore claim that from an ethical point of view
they achieve equivalence? What is meant by this term? It is clear that the
concept of ethics is bound up with this issue (or phenomenon). Ever
since scholars engaged in developing ST/TT comparison models, they
have been building increasingly detailed frameworks and fragmenting
the difficult concept of equivalence. In due course, however, functional
equivalence models came to replace linguistic-based approaches. The
notion of equivalence can be viewed from a number of perspectives,

29
although linguistics and functionalism are the most important ones. Besi-
des these two main divisions, we can also find a combined model that
takes into account both linguistic-based approaches and functional
models, such as Baker’s model (1992). These models of translation equi-
valences will be further discussed in detail in Chapter 3.6.

1.9 Breakdown and overview of chapters

Chapter 2 explores the relationship between ideology, gender, and trans-

lation in order to highlight their importance and relevance for my
investigation. This chapter is divided into three parts: moving from a
general discussion on differences in language use between males and
females (ideology, language, and gender), I shall look at a specific case
of the relationship between ideology, language, and gender that is sexism
in language. Finally, I shall focus on a more specific topic, the relation-
ship between ideology and translation, where I shall be looking at the
case of feminist translations as an example of texts which are ideolo-
gically distorted. The main hypothesis of the work will be stated in this
chapter and will be tested in Part II.
Chapter 3 provides an introduction to my methodology. It is divided
into two parts. In the first section I introduce three branches of lingui-
stics: contrastive linguistics, text linguistics, and critical linguistics. My
intention is to combine them together in a CCTL (critical contrastive text
linguistics) approach in order to draw up an analytical checklist of lin-
guistic tools selected from these branches in Chapter 4. All of them have
some relevance for my research. First of all, contrastive linguistics al-
lows me to highlight similarities and differences between Italian and
English. Text linguistics makes it possible to gain a deeper understand-
ing of both the ST and the TT in terms of register, text types, texture, and
pragmatic features. Finally, critical linguistics provides a further critical
dimension within which one can go beyond the linguistic dimension and
place the text in a specific socio-cultural environment.
This raises questions about why and how linguistic structures show
differences in power relations and express viewpoints. In the second part

30
of the chapter I shall examine different theories of equivalence in
translation. These theories are important at this stage because they allow
me to build my own model for comparing STs and TTs. Equivalence can
be used as a tool to assess translations at different linguistic levels. This
chapter also includes a section on the importance of linguistic analysis
for research in the field of translation studies.
Chapter 4 focuses exclusively on my methodology. It is divided
into four levels of analysis or types of equivalence and in each level one
can find a selection of linguistic tools previously mentioned in Chapter
3. The aim of this chapter is to apply the theoretical part of Chapter 3
and to show, after a brief introduction of their major characteristics, how
these features can be used in my comparative analysis of ideology and
gender in translation.
Chapter 5 deals with the presentation of STs and TTs. Some
information about authors and translators will be given. This chapter also
provides some information about the historical context in which STs and
TTs were set as well as information on the main issues and text typology
of the STs.
Chapter 6 deals with Maraini’s first novel, La vacanza (1962), and
its English translation, The Holiday (1966) by Stuart Hood.
Chapter 7 focuses on another feminist novel by Maraini, L’età del
malessere (1963), translated by a female translator, Frances Frenaye, in
the same year.
Chapter 8 offers an analysis of one of Pasolini’s most controversial
writings, Teorema (1968) which was translated by Stuart Hood and
published in 1992.
Chapter 9 explores Carlo Levi’s Cristo si è fermato a Eboli
published in 1945 and translated by Frances Frenaye in 1948.
In Chapter 10 I shall summarize my findings and give my
conclusions. This chapter is divided into six parts: 1) general conclu-
sions, 2) Stuart Hood, 3) Frances Frenaye, 4) similarities between these
two translators, 5) differences between these two translators, and 6) pro-
spects for future research.

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