Translating women in early modern England

Abstract

A number of recent critics have argued that translation was considered a suitable activity for women during the early modern period. However, publication, stigmatized through its association with the middle classes, and translation, often a contentious activity, were gendered during this period; authorship was considered to be a male preserve. While twenty-one translations by women were published between 1500 and 1640, the prefatory material accompanying these texts suggest that women's translations were subject to surveillance and mediation. The progression, through publication, from the private to public spheres, touched on cultural anxieties; a woman's virtue, synonymous with her silence, chastity, and containment within the domestic sphere, was compromised by her appearance in print. Often addressing these fears, the prefaces, written by women and by male "authority figures," adapt conventional strategies, creating a range of discursive positions for women.