Three Generations of British Women Translators: Sarah Austin’s Legacy in the Long Nineteenth Century
Capancioni, C. (2021) Three Generations of British Women Translators: Sarah Austin’s Legacy in the Long Nineteenth Century. In: New Perspectives on Gender and Translation New Voices for Transnational Dialogues. Routledge, London and New York, pp. 33-47. ISBN ISBN 9780367369989
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Abstract
This chapter examines the intellectual endeavours of Sarah Austin (née Taylor, 1793-1867), a British woman writer who in the nineteenth century achieved European recognition as an outstanding English translator whose work was both well received and popular (Johnston 2013). She facilitated intellectual exchanges, discourses, and collaborations by translating into English philosophical, historical, and literary texts originally produced in French, German, and Italian. She shaped an intellectual, active role for the translator that anticipated that of a cultural mediator, which she passed down to her daughter, Lucie Duff Gordon (née Austin, 1821-1869), and her granddaughter, Janet Ross (née Duff Gordon, 1842-1927). They too developed successful literary careers by mediating the history and literature, and political and philosophical debates of other European countries, in which they spent periods of their lives, for the British readership in the long nineteenth century. This chapter establishes the contribution of Austin, Duff Gordon, and Ross as influential agents in mediating through translation French, German and Italian philosophical and political discourses for a widening British readership. Informed by transnational discourses, their translations are texts aimed to be accessible and engaging culturally and politically for their British target audience. Furthermore, it draws attention to the ways in which Austin’s approach to translation created a distinctive matrilineal intellectual legacy that affirms translating as a profession that facilitates women’s literary and political agency. The multigenerational approach outlines how, in the nineteenth century, “women who could translate were empowered to imagine a different discourse and ideological space” (Scholl 2011, 2) and to claim the act of translation as a form of writing giving them agency and visibility.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
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| Additional Information: | This is an author accepted manuscript of a book chapter published on 1st December 2021 by Routledge in New Perspectives on Gender and Translation, New Voices for Transnational Dialogues. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
| Divisions: | School of Humanities |
| Depositing User: | Claudia Capancioni |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Mar 2025 11:04 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Mar 2025 11:04 |
| URI: | https://bgro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/1205 |
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