Q: There is something stereotypically masculine about the kind of chest-pumping, overly stylish translations of your predecessors. A: Iâm really skeptical about any gender essentialism on that. Other women have published translations of Homer into Italian and into other languages I canât read. Iâve read some of the French translation by Anne Dacier from the 17th century, and itâs fairly loquacious. Could you pick the translations of The Odyssey by a woman out of a lineup? Absolutely not. But journalists wanted it to be about that. I get that youâre trying to create a story, but I just donât believe it.
Q: Have you followed the online discourse about the film so far? A: Itâs made-up controversy. Nobodyâs seen this movie. Itâs just the usual triggers about race and gender, and I just find it very tedious.
Q: Iâm curious about what it would look like to make a feminist version of The Odyssey. It seems that could be a helpful framework to have ahead of Nolanâs movie. A: Iâve been watching a lot of Nolan movies in preparation for all of this, and it seems to me that we donât know what the scriptâs going to be like. If itâs the usual Nolan plot of âA guy is on a quest far from home and struggling to get back to an objectified female character,â then Iâm not sure I see that plot as inherently particularly feminist.
Q: Looking at those two changes, it seems to me that your translation has a feminist function, whether itâs intentional or not. A: I think the bar should be higher for feminist translation. There are people whose project that is.
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