Queer Theory and Translation Studies: Language, Politics, Desire - Paperback

by Brian James Baer (Author), Michael Cronin (Editor)

This groundbreaking book explores the relevance of queer theory to Translation Studies and of translation to Global Sexuality Studies. Beginning with a comprehensive overview of the origins and evolution of queer theory, this book places queer theory and Translation Studies in a productive and mutually interrogating relationship.

After framing the discussion of actual and potential interfaces between queer sexuality and queer textuality, the chapters trace the transnational circulation of queer texts, focusing on the place of translation in "gay" anthologies, the packaging of queer life writing for global audiences, and the translation of lyric poetry as a distinct site of queer performativity. Baer analyzes fictional translators in literature and film, the treatment of translation in historical and ethnographic studies of sexual and linguistic others, the work of queer translators, and the reception of queer texts in translation.

Including a range of case studies to exemplify key ethical issues relevant to all scholars of global sexuality and postcolonial studies, this book is essential reading for advanced students, scholars, and researchers in Translation Studies, gender and sexuality studies, and related areas.

Author Biography

Brian James Baer is Professor of Russian and Translation Studies at Kent State University, Ohio. He is founding editor of the journal Translation and Interpreting Studies and coeditor, with Michelle Woods, of the series Literatures, Cultures, Translation. His most recent publications include the monograph Translation and the Making of Modern Russian Literature; the collected volumes Translation in Russian Contexts (with Susanna Witt) and Queering Translation, Translating the Queer (with Klaus Kaindl); and the translated volumes Culture, Memory and History: Essays in Cultural Semiotics (by Juri Lotman) and Red Crosses (by Sasha Filipenko, with Ellen Vayner).