Sex and gender representation in translation: Unveiling the complications

Abstract

The paper discusses a number of difficulties connected with translating gendered vocabulary which, for the limited purpose of this discussion, is understood as either vocabulary that allows the translator to identify the sex of a referent or all other vocabulary that, in one way or another, relates to gender as a cultural concept. The presentation, based on students’ translations as well as authentic examples from contemporary literature collected by the author, is primarily intended for translation trainees who frequently underestimate the problems they will one day be obliged to resolve in confrontation with this particular segment of the lexicon. Other than that, it may be of use to fellow translation instructors, especially those interested in authentic material that they could employ to illustrate how the two concepts, translation and gender, intersect. The illustrative material presented in the paper represents English and Polish. From this, it follows that it is pertinent to any discussion of rendering gender while translating from an analytic to an inflectional language. Its novelty resides in the fact that it showcases issues that are often ignored in current discussions of translation and gender, but are nevertheless important from the point of view of everyday translation practice.