ABSTRACT
In Sri Lanka, a country that has a prolific translation industry, feminist theory remains one of the least translated subject areas. Yet, although these works are not widely available and not read nearly as often as theories such as Marxism, there seems to be a commonly accepted consensus as to their nature. As Kumari Jayawardena points out, “the words ‘feminism’ and ‘feminist’ have become emotive words that often evoke hostile reactions” and negative responses from a variety of people including “traditionalists, political conservatives and even certain leftists” 1 (1986, 2). And so, in a project to translate a selection of modern feminist theoretical writings into Sinhala, specifically for university students reading in the Sinhala language stream, this sort of knee-jerk resistance to anything feminist poses a serious challenge, especially in the current socio-political context where extremist ethno-nationalist ideas are freely disseminated in the country’s, and the university’s, popular culture and social imaginary. 2 This chapter discusses an approach that might be taken to introduce significant feminist theories to university students working in Sinhala in order to demonstrate that they are not being confronted with something completely alien.
