Full Description
This collection offers insights into the transnational and translingual implications of Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex), a text that has served as foundational for feminisms worldwide since its publication in 1949.
Little scholarly attention has been devoted to how the original French-language source text made its way into languages other than English. This is a shocking omission, given that many (but by no means all) other translations were based on the 1953 English translation by Howard M. Parshley, which has been widely criticized by Beauvoir scholars for its omissions and careless attention to its philosophical implications. This volume seeks to fill this gap in scholarship with an innovative collection of essays that interrogate the ways that Beauvoir's essay has shifted in meaning and significance as it has travelled across the globe.
This volume brings together for the first time scholars from Translation Studies, Literary Studies and Philosophical Studies, and over half of it is dedicated to non-Western European engagements with Le Deuxième Sexe (including chapters on the Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hungarian and Polish translations). As such, this collection will be essential to any scholar of Beauvoir's philosophy and its contributions to feminist discourses.
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
A Note on Translation
List of Illustrations
Introduction
JULIA C. BULLOCK AND PAULINE HENRY- TIERNEY
PART I: Framing Le Deuxième Sexe: Contexts, Paratexts, and Practice
1 The 1980s Chinese Translations of The Second Sex and Women's Situation in 1980s China: A Post-translation Study Approach
ZHONGLI YU
2 Paratextual Elements in Arabic Translations of Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe
HALA G. SAMI
3 The Process of Translating Le Deuxième Sexe into European Spanish: Challenges and Opportunities
MARÍA LUISA RODRÍGUEZ MUNOZ
PART II: (Mis)interpreting Beauvoir: Philosophical and Ideological Framing of the Text
4 Goulash Socialism vs. Feminism? Beauvoir in Hungary
URSULA HURLEY AND SZILVIA NARAY- DAVEY
5 The Polish Translation of Le Deuxième Sexe in the Hands of the Censorship Office
WERONIKA SZWEBS
6 The Controversial Arabic Translations of Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe
ISABELLE MEHAWEJ
7 Le Deuxième Sexe Censored under Francoism
PILAR GODAYOL
PART III: Impact: Beauvoir's Legacy for Philosophy and Feminisms Worldwide
8 Erotic Love and Marriage in English Translations of Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe
ELLIE ANDERSON
9 Translating in Bad Faith? Articulations of Beauvoir's Existentialist Philosophy in the English Translations of Le Deuxième Sexe
PAULINE HENRY- TIERNEY
10 Reclaiming Beauvoir: The Feminist (Re)translation of Le Deuxième Sexe in Japan
JULIA C. BULLOCK
11 Untranslatability and Le Deuxième Sexe
PENELOPE DEUTSCHER
Epilogue: Translating Key Concepts in Le Deuxième Sexe: A Crosslinguistic Discussion
EDITED BY JULIA C. BULLOCK AND PAULINE HENRY- TIERNEY
Index
