ABSTRACT
This paper grew out of the conviction that drawing parallels between the evolution of gender studies and translation studies may be enlightening in order to foster new developments in our discipline. Firstly, comparing the evolution in the definition of the objects which are at the very basis of these two movements, i.e., the concepts of 'woman' and 'translation', allows us to posit that translation studies could enlarge its horizon by revising and de-essentializing (emulating the move in gender studies in relation to the concept of 'woman') both the ideal definition of translation that has traditionally been in force and the social yet biased definition of translation which descriptive translation studies claims as the (only) point of departure. In the second place, the comparison seems to be helpful not only in discovering the flaws of descriptivist approaches but also in questioning and problematizing the core assumptions of mainstream feminist translation theories. Gender studies, in short, proves to be instructive not only for redefining the general targets of the discipline but also for inspiring new feminist translation agendas which aim to circumvent the risk of essentialism.
