Female voices and feminist translation in German and Austrian literature, 1924-1996

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My research, a theoretical translation project, will examine twentieth-century novels written in German, with female first-person narrators. I will be particularly interested in works whose authors claim to have had difficulties in creating space for women's voices and experiences. My corpus of source texts will provisionally span the period 1924-1996: Arthur Schnitzler's Fräulein Else (1924), Irmgard Keun's Gilgi (1931) and Das kunstseidene Mädchen (1932), Marlen Haushofer's Die Wand (1963); Ingeborg Bachmann's Malina (1971); and Marlene Streeruwitz's Verfuhrungen (1996). Close readings of these texts will allow me to form an image of approaches to creating a specifically female voice across the century, and against shifting feminist contexts. I will examine linguistic patterns throughout the works, and the utilisation of certain narrative techniques or formal experimentation as attempts (or failures) to create a female voice, especially in light of the authors' lamentations that language is too male-oriented to allow for this.I will examine existing English translations of these texts, bearing in mind three broad questions: have the authors' attempts to carve out a female linguistic niche been accurately captured by English translators? Do male and female translators render female voices differently, making use of feminist translation techniques such as hijacking or prefacing? Might different cultural histories across the UK and German-speaking countries impact translators' understanding of female voices and, therefore, their translation choices? I will demonstrate the need for a renewed focus on feminist translation theory, as a theory which is uniquely equipped to address the original authors' attempts to voice female characters.Feminist translation is usually defined as the translation of feminist texts, though it is often used interchangeably with the broader term 'gender-sensitive translation'. That the existing definitions are rather unclear is a sign of the neglect that feminist translation has met with; it has received little attention as a credible, comprehensive translation approach. Recent attempts to revise this neglect are commendable however, as feminist translation has developed most rapidly in Quebec, it has seldom been discussed with specific reference to German-English translations. Indeed, a recent, comprehensive handbook of feminism and gender-sensitivity in translation (von Flotow and Kamal eds., 2020) analyses work from 20 countries, yet overlooks German-speaking countries. In addressing this oversight in my research, I will make an original contribution to the field of translation studies; laying a foundation for future research into feminist translation, and possibly for this becoming a comprehensive translation theory comparable to the frequently-taught skopos and equivalence theories.My research is placed in an active field, namely, in the context of twenty-first century awareness of gendered language, and linguistic change to account for new expressions of gender identity. Instances of such change include individuals' adoption of non-standard pronouns such as ze and zir in the last decade; as well as recent high-profile eliminations of gendered language in healthcare, education, and politics. Instances from 2021 alone include childbirth charities and NHS trusts issuing guidance to use gender-neutral terms such as "chestfeeding", "perinatal", and "birthing parent" instead of "breastfeeding", "maternity", and "mother"; St Paul's Girls' School abolishing the label "head girl"; and the United States House of Representatives eliminating gendered terms such as "mother" and "daughter" in favour of "parent" and "child" in all House documents. The elimination of terms specific to women lends modern relevance to my research into the creation and re-creation of uniquely female voices: how should womanhood today be discussed, read, and translated?