Review of Gender Approaches in the Translation Classroom — Training the Doers

Abstract

I present here a review dedicated to a critical view about the book Gender Approaches in the Translation Classroom — Training the Doers (2019), edited by Marcella de Marco and Piero Toto, that is a great contribution to the intersection among Translation Studies together with Gender, Feminist and queer Studies, aiming at the classroom as focus. As there is a huge gap about feminist and queer theory related issues in translation training, this volume addresses the urgency for wider dialogues in Translation Studies, conceiving other ways of joining these themes to translation, so that collaborations can emerge in an effective way for each context. Each of the persons involved in the chapters’ writing acknowledges that there is not a translation practice that is not ideologically situated, therefore, they bring their own ways to intertwine a politically committed theory with translation teaching. On one hand, this attitude nurtures a desire to foster practices more engaged with social justice, on the other, they recognize the limitations of curricula models associated with market demands that attend to hegemonic standards. One of the main questions is how the classroom can be a space to provoke collective critical reflection about what is understood by gender and sexuality, so that, even though one might find trouble in making resistant practices of translation possible, the sensitization to feminist and/or queer themes can leave an impact into each individual conscience. This trace, on its turn, can affect ways of act and live, in the professional field of translation and in the personal sphere itself, guided by an ethics of accountability.