ABSTRACT
The problematic nature of ideology as a general concept is evidenced in Eagleton’s 16-point list of definitions, which includes several overlapping and mutually incompatible themes. Research themes is useful to distinguish between the ideology of translating, meaning how the act of translating itself is influenced by the ideological environment writ large and the translation of ideology, or what happens to the values or worldviews embedded in texts in the course of their translation into another language. Research on language ideology and translation includes Venuti’s work on fluency and domestication and his programme of privileging minoritizing and foreignizing translation. Bennett argues, leads to the obliteration of the knowledges and worldviews of other cultures, a situation which she describes as one of ‘epistemicide’. Gender is another major theme in the study of translation and ideology. Feminist translators have advocated extensive intervention in translation to push against discourses perceived to be patriarchal, and hence hegemonic.
