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TranslatingFeminism
11
vealingtheseparationofactivismfromscienceandacademia.5Therefore,
thetranslationofnotonlytexts,butalsoofparticularconceptsbecomes
apoliticalactandapresentationofone’sownideology.Inmyopinion,far
toooftentheopponentsofthiswayofthinkingaboutacademiaforgetthat
conservatism(notonlymethodological)isalsoanideology.
Itisalwayslanguagethatisproblematic.Everywomanwhousesthe
Polishlanguageceaselesslynegotiatesherownstancetowardsthelan-
guageoftheofficialandpublicsphere,whichrequireshertosometimes
usefemininewordendingsandonotheroccasions–masculineendings.
IzabelaFilipiakhasevenmanagedtofindapatronofsuchtransformations:
themythicalbardTiresias,6whowasamaninthefirsthalfofhislifeand
awomaninthesecond(Filipiak1999:97).Ifwelookatthiscomparison
carefully,wewillnoticeahermaphroditicstatusofthePolishlanguage
usedbysomeonereadytoadopttherole/positionofawoman.7Usually,
infeministcriticismweinvestigatetheoppressivequalityofmasculine
personalformsandtheinaccessibilityofsocialspheresforwomen(Środa
2003;Karwatowska,Szpyra-Kozłowska2005).Herethegreatestopponent
turnsouttobetherhetoricofnondifferentiationortheuniversalizationof
themasculinegender.Hencethesexualizationofmasculinecategoriesas
wellastherecognitionofphysiological,corporealandhormonalaspects
ofmasculinityarepostulated(Braidotti1994;Grosz1994).Torevealthe
mechanismoftheuniversalizationofmasculinity,itisnotenoughtoana-
lysevocabulary,grammarandidioms.Tounderminesuchcategoriesas
anormorrepresentativeness,borderlinecasesneedtobeanalysedbecause
5Obviously,Iunderstandthatthemereuseoftheterm“feminism”doesnotinitselfim-
plypoliticalinvolvement,butIamconvincedthatitisconnectedwithactivismtoagreater
extent.Oneoftheexamplesillustratingtheseparationofacademicfeminismfromthesocial
oneisMargaretR.Higonnet’s“FeministPerspectivesonComparativeLiterature,”which
appearedinarecentlypublishedanthologyNiewspółmierność.Perspektywynowoczesnej
komparatystyki.Antologia(Disproportion.ThePerspectivesofModernComparativeStud-
ies.AnAnthology).Inthefootnotetheauthoremphasizes:“Thereshouldbeadistinction
betweenfeministactivistswhofightfortheabolitionofthesocialbarrierdiscrimination
andproponentsoffeministtheoriesandcriticismwhoconcentratemainlyonthesocialsig-
nificanceofthesebarriersaswellasonliteraryformsshapedbythem”(Higonnet2010:
383–384).Yet,itisimportantthatsuchadistinctionappearsinthetranslatedtext;inthe
Polishlanguageacademicfeminism,i.e.theoryandcriticism,isgenderstudies.
6DuetohisblindnessTiresiasisalsoapatronofactivitiesassociatedwiththesensitiv-
itytodisabilityissues(cf.Kuppers2008:174–82).ForfurtherinformationonTheTiresias
Projectgoto:http://www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk/alicia_grace.
7AninterestingexampleoftakingthisstancetowardslanguageisMichałWitkowski’s
prose.
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