Transnationalizing Feminist Translation: Prospects and Problems of Translating an Odia Feminist Text Using Feminist Translation Theories and Strategies

Abstract

This paper interrogates the transnational applicability of Western feminist translation theories, particularly those advanced by the Québec experimental school of translation, in the context of feminist writing from Odisha. By engaging with Pratibha Ray’s Punyotaya (The sacred river), it examines how feminist translation strategies function as both enabling and destabilizing forces within the regional literary canon. Translating Punyotaya through a feminist lens becomes an empowering ‘archaeological act’ that excavates the Odia literary canon to expose historically marginalized intersections of gender and translation. Such an endeavor allows the translator to intervene critically in patriarchal discourses by ‘reading both the author and the text as feminist,’ thereby re-signifying Odia women’s writing within the broader framework of feminist epistemology. At the same time, translating as a feminist foregrounds the translator’s subjectivity, making visible her gendered position as a co-creator of meaning and challenging the illusion of neutrality and fidelity. However, Punyotaya also problematizes the straightforward application of Western feminist translation strategies, demanding sensitivity to local gender politics and linguistic specificities. The paper thus argues that feminist translation must be re-contextualized through a decolonial and intersectional framework that acknowledges indigenous feminist thought while negotiating between theory, culture, and practice in reconstructing women’s literary agency in Odisha. Further, by situating translation as an ‘ethically charged’ ‘aesthetic practice,’ the study underscores the need to move beyond universalist models and toward plural, location-specific feminist methodologies grounded in vernacular feminist literary traditions.

Keywords

• transnationalizing feminist translation
• feminist translation as archeological act
• translating as a feminist
• intersectional-praxis in feminist translation
• translating an Odia feminist text

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