Table Of ContentTowards a Feminist Translator Studies
This pioneering work advocates for a shift toward inclusivity in the UK translated
literature landscape, investigating and challenging unconscious bias around women
in translation and building on existing research highlighting the role of translators as
activists and agents and the possibilities for these new theoretical models to contrib-
ute to meaningful industry change.
The book sets out the context for the new subdiscipline of feminist translator
studies, positing this as an essential mechanism to work towards diversity in the
translated literature sector of the publishing industry. In a series of five case studies
that each exemplify a key component of the feminist translator studies “toolkit”,
Vassallo draws on exclusive interviews with a range of activist translators and
publishers, setting these in dialogue with contemporary perspectives on feminism
and translation to propose a new agent-based model of feminist translation prac-
tice. In synthesising these perspectives, Vassallo makes a powerful argument for
questioning existing structures in the translated literature publishing system which
perpetuate bias and connects these conversations to wider social movements
towards promoting demonstrable change in the industry.
This book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of translation
studies and publishing, as well as for the various agents involved in promoting
translated literature in the UK and beyond.
Helen Vassallo is Associate Professor of French and Translation at the University
of Exeter (United Kingdom). Her primary research interests are in translated lit-
erature and feminism, with a focus on contemporary women’s writing and theory.
She translates Francophone women’s writing, with a particular focus on North
Africa and the Middle East: most recently, she has translated Darina Al Joundi’s
The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing (2022) and its sequel Marseillaise My
Way (2022). Helen’s translation of selected non-fiction by Prix Goncourt-winning
author Leïla Slimani, The Devil Is in the Detail and Other Stories, will be pub-
lished in 2023, and she is currently working on a translation of Darina Al Joundi’s
Prisoner of the Levant, a fictionalised biography of the pioneering Arab feminist
May Ziadeh. Helen is the founder of Translating Women, an industry-facing
research project that engages with publishers, translators, and other stakeholders
to work against intersectional gender bias in the translated literature sector of the
UK publishing industry. She writes regular reviews and opinion pieces for the
Translating Women blog, as well as freelance pieces elsewhere, and she tweets
about the project at @translatewomen.
Routledge Advances in Translation and Interpreting Studies
Lifestyle Politics in Translation
The Shaping and Re-Shaping of Ideological Discourse
By M. Cristina Caimotto and Rachele Raus
Reframing Translators, Translators as Reframers
Edited by Dominique Faria, Marta Pacheco Pinto, and Joana Moura
Transfiction and Bordering Approaches to Theorizing Translation
Essays in Dialogue with the Work of Rosemary Arrojo
Edited by D.M. Spitzer and Paulo Oliveira
Translating Controversial Texts in East Asian Contexts
A Methodology for the Translation of ‘Controversy’
Adam Zulawnik
Using Technologies for Creative-Text Translation
Edited by James Hadley, Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov, Carlos da Silva
Cardoso Teixeira, and Antonio Toral
Relevance Theory in Translation and Interpreting
A Cognitive-Pragmatic Approach
Fabrizio Gallai
Towards a Feminist Translator Studies
Intersectional Activism in Translation and Publishing
Helen Vassallo
The Behavioral Economics of Translation
Douglas Robinson
For more information about this series, please visit https://www.rout-
ledge.com/Routledge-Advances-in-Translation-and-Interpreting-Studies/
book-series/RTS
Towards a Feminist Translator
Studies
Intersectional Activism in Translation
and Publishing
Helen Vassallo
First published 2023
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DOI: 10.4324/9781003032281
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: Towards a feminist translator studies 1
1 Action: Committing to gender activism with
And Other Stories 22
2 Representation: Re-negotiating cultural
encounters with Charco Press 45
3 Responsibility: Publishing against the “proven
formula” with Comma Press 72
4 Risk: Shifting power dynamics with
Fitzcarraldo Editions 97
5 Hospitality: Publishing against the mainstream
with Tilted Axis Press 120
Conclusion: Publishing beyond bias? From
resistance to resilience 146
Index 156
Acknowledgements
When I first pitched this book to Routledge in 2019, I could never have
imagined that I would be writing the entirety of it under the restrictions
caused by a global pandemic. There were times when completing it felt
impossible – ludicrous, even. That I have done so is a testament to the
support I have received along the way, for which I am immeasurably
grateful.
First I want to thank the wonderful translators and publishers who
agreed to be interviewed for this study, and who gave their time and
thoughts so generously. My deepest gratitude to Sophie Hughes, Sawad
Hussain, Sophie Lewis, Annie McDermott, Carolina Orloff, Ra Page,
Becca Parkinson, Nichola Smalley, Deborah Smith, Jacques Testard,
Stefan Tobler, and Zoë Turner. This book quite simply would not have
been possible without you.
I am grateful to the University of Exeter for granting me two periods of
research leave: the first in 2017–2018, when I took the plunge and
changed my research direction with the Translating Women project, and
the second in 2020–2021, when I wrote the first draft of this book. I am
especially indebted to Adam Watt who, first as director of research and
then as head of department, recognised the importance of this project and
supported me in carving out the time necessary for its development.
The team at Routledge has been extremely professional and helpful,
and I would especially like to thank Harry Dixon, Helena Parkinson and
Elysse Preposi for their support.
As well as the translators and publishers who gave me such phenome-
nal material for my case studies, there are many people in the publishing
industry who have championed or nourished the development of this
research; in particular, I extend my thanks to Jen Calleja, Will Forrester,
Nicky Harman, Rónán Hession, Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Ann Morgan,
Nicci Praça, and Ros Schwartz.
Over the years spent building and researching this project, I have con-
nected with and been inspired by a number of brilliant colleagues. I owe
a debt of gratitude to Chantal Wright, who has been a valuable supporter
Acknowledgements ix
of this research. I have been privileged to work on several projects with
Olga Castro, with whom I organised the inaugural Translating Women
conference at the Institute of Modern Languages Research in London in
2019. There I met Margaret Carson, Aviya Kushner, and Corine Tachtiris,
whose work has helped shape my approach to this study. My sincerest
thanks to you all.
There is one person who both directly sparked this project and has
been its biggest champion. Richard Mansell is not only a generous and
inspiring colleague whose ideas and encouragement led me here but also
the best partner with whom to navigate all of life’s adventures. He sup-
ported me in innumerable ways while I wrote this book, and if it exists
today, it is in large part because of him.
