Prof. K. Suneetha Rani, Head, Centre for Women’s Studies was invited to deliver the keynote lecture at the sixth annual conference of PraRaVe (Prajsvamika Rachayitrula Vedika/Democratic Women Writers’ Forum) on Anuvada Sahityam – Stri Sandarbham (Literature in Translation and the Woman Context) on 9th July 2022 at Guntur. Prof. K. Suneetha Rani elaborated on the various aspects of translation from a gender perspective. She discussed how translation is an interpretation, a close reading, and a critique of the source text and the context. The various turns in translation studies such as linguistic turn, cultural turn and ideological turn have reflected the contemporary movements and developments in society, culture and politics. Prof. Rani began by criticising the early critics who compared translation with a woman who is either beautiful or loyal. Many women critics have given new perspectives to read and critique translation as ideology. Gayatri Chakravarti Spivak describes translation as close reading with the translator’s interpretation while Barbara Godard employs a powerful term such as “womanhandling” for translations by women.
Prof. Rani argued that translation does have a woman context as announced by the very title of the conference. She problematised memory, invisibility, and mediation in translation particularly in the context of gender-related discussions, and held that women translators have been subverting these terms and the discourse of translation through their choice of the text, language, readership, and interpretation. The keynote lecture generated intense discussions in the remaining sessions of the two-day seminar as well. The seminar was attended by many writers, translators and critics from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.