When a Man Translates a Woman's Work ... Ideology or Misunderstanding?

The aim of this paper is to analyse a translation of a woman’s writing into English. The woman writer chosen is not a declared feminist although her work brings up issues related to women and women’s situation in society. The main theme of the work is indeed abortion which, in Italy, was made legal in 1978. The work, however, was published in 1975 and it was therefore quite a taboo for the time period. This work was translated by an English male translator and the assumption is that his ideology could have had an impact in his translation choices as a result of his sex. After a brief introduction of the author and the major themes of her work, this paper will focus on some specific elements and will attempt to analyse the ideological-driven shifts in the translated work.