All the "spellbinding words" and "melodious songs". Women and their imposed silence in "The Odyssey" translations

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Interpreting / Translating , grade: 108, University of Ferrara, language: English, abstract: The main topic of this work is the imposed silence on women in translation, an activity that had always been the only intellectual activity that was considered suitable for them.

The first chapter wanted to define the concept of "translation" in all its facets and all historical and cultural tendencies. Particularly, it was observed that translation was suitable for women because of its intellectual inferiority, and because of this was the only academical activity suitable for them. But, in the course of history, it became just another tool at the service of the dominant part in society, the male part, that used it only to oppress women. To affirm this all the attempts made by women to break the silence imposed to them were considered, starting form the history of the feminist movement and all other ideologies that contributed to create and support the stereotypes imposed on women.

The second chapter analyses the first English translation of the Odyssey by the Greek poet Homer made by a woman, Professor Emily Wilson. In fact, all the available English translations of this text were made by men, that succeded in reducing women to silence. This was an innovative text, and to demonstrate this, the relevant passages featuring the female protagonists of the book were compared with the version by Peter Green, in the attempt to find the main differences, not only stylistic, but also the ones given by the different gender of the translator. Also, it was possible to find the sexism that had already been present in the book, but was reinforced in all translations. Key tool for this analysis was Skopos Theory, that puts in the first place the functionality of translation and, most of all, considers the importance of the cultural aspect in the definition of every translated text.