Gender and Linguistic Sexism in Elisabetta Cametti’s I guardiani della Storia and Its Translation into English and Spanish

Abstract

Language is one of the strongest and most valuable tools that is within our reach and that allows us to communicate in society. However, through both written and spoken language, a certain gender inequality can usually be perceived. Nonetheless, there are some considerable differences depending on the languages. While Spanish and Italian are rooted in a patriarchal society, English seems to be more neutral when it comes to gender. Some nouns used to designate professions clearly represent the best examples of sexist language and dictionaries are a fair reflection of this. In order to deepen the topic from a gender translation perspective, this work will analyze some of the jobs that appear throughout the novel I guardiani della Storia, written by the Italian author Elisabetta Cametti, and its translation into Spanish (by Claudia Conde) and into English (by Scott P. Sheridan). Therefore, this analysis will present a study of the differences among the three languages regarding linguistic sexism as well as examine how gender issues can influence the reception of the translated texts.