Translating with the Earth: Gender, Feminism and Eco-Translation

24 Jan Translating with the Earth: Gender, Feminism and Eco-Translation

Intersections between gender, feminism, and ecological issues have been explored for more than fifty years. Scholars have demonstrated that ecosystems and life forms are oppressed by the same systems of power critiqued and challenged by queer and feminist research. They have unearthed connections between patriarchy, capitalism, racism, colonialism, imperialism, speciesism, and environmental destruction. Against these intellectual debates, the lack of attention in translation studies to ecology and gender, including feminist paradigms that help address climate crisis, is conspicuous. In this article, we call feminist translation scholars to make the leap from a transnational to a transcontinental perspective—a whole Earth translation studies conceptualised beyond human nations, borders, and languages. We introduce some of the current thought on listening to and engaging with the Earth and the more-than-human. Challenging deep-seated dichotomies, notably human and non-human, and taking our cue from Indigenous knowledges, we imagine what translating with the Earth would look and feel like for our work to contribute to Earthly flourishing. For more information, see https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rftr20/2/1