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Raili Põldsaar. Identitâtes sajaukuma gadîjums: Simonas de Bovuâras româna ”Otrais dzimums” ..
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relegated to a pariah status in the neo–liberalist Estonia. The conclusion of the Estonian
The Second Sex, thus, calls for the liberation of women and celebrates their
equality with men but without the thoughtful supporting material and well–reasoned
argumentation, the text resembles a political pamphlet and not a serious work of philosophy,
like the original. It does plant some troubling thoughts in the mind of the
reader about the role and fate of women but it does not fully persuade the reader that
a woman can be a serious public intellectual—a troubling conclusion, considering
the prevalent negative stereotype of feminists as angry and ill–reasoned hot–heads.
Simone de Beauvoir deserves better and so does the Estonian reading public.
Any translation reflects its time and so we can also trace the lines of the neo–
liberalist patriarchal Estonia of the late 1990s in the editorial choices of The Second
Sex. The Estonian de Beauvoir differs significantly from her French mother and English
step–sister. Unfortunately, with a small publishing market as ours, it is unlikely
that a new translation would appear any time soon. After all, the often criticized English
translation still waits for revisions 50 years since its original publication. Thus
it can only be hoped that academic analyses like the present one would alert readers
to the flaws and maybe help countries that still have to undertake the challenge of
translating Beauvoir avoid the traps.
REFERENCES
1 Raili Põldsaar. American Cultural Influence and the Re–Construction of Gender in Recent
Estonian Public Discourse. Unpublished MA thesis. – Tartu: University of Tartu,
2000.
2 Examples of Pilvre’s work can be found in the following collection: Barbi Pilvre.
Formaat. Valitud tekste klassivõitlusest ja naisküsimusest 1996–2002. – Tallinn: Eesti
Ekspressi Kirjastus, 2002.
3 Simone de Beauvoir. Teine sugupool. – Tallinn: Vagabund, 1997; Linda Nochlin et al.
Pandora laegas. Feministliku kunstikriitika võtmetekste. – Tallinn: Kunst, 2000; Evelyn
Fox Keller. Mõtisklusi soost ja teadusest. – Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2001.
4 Susan Sontag. Haigus kui metafoor. AIDS ja selle metafoorid. – Tallinn: Varrak, 2002.
5 Marek Tamm. Sartre ja de Beauvoir Nõukogude Eestis //Vikerkaar, 10/11, 1998: 148–156.
6 Simone de Beauvoir. The Second Sex. – London: Everyman’s Library, 1993 [1953].
7 For analyses of the English translation, see Margaret A. Simons The Silencing of Simone
de Beauvoir: Guess What’s Missing from The Second Sex //Women’s Studies International
Forum, 6, 1983: 559–564 or Luise von Flotow. Translation and Gender: Translating
in the “Era of Feminism”. – Ottawa: St. Jerome Publishing, 1997.
8 Sherry Simon. Gender in Translation: Cultural Identity and the Politics of Transmission.
– London and New York, 1996: 91.
9 Ample evidence can be found in the articles of, for example, Elizabeth Fallaize, ed.
Simone de Beauvoir. A Critical Reader. – London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
10 Peter Fawcett, “Ideology and translation” in Mona Baker, ed. The Routledge Encyclopedia
of Translation Studies. – London and New York: Routledge, 1998: 107.
11 Ibid.
12 For a similar opinion, see also Marek Tamm, “Miks naine on Teine?” //Vikerkaar, 12,
1997: 93.