Rewriting the westernTransnational dimensions and gender fluidity in sebastian barry’s days without end

  1. DAVID RÍO RAIGADAS 1
  1. 1 Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
    info

    Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

    Lejona, España

    ROR https://ror.org/000xsnr85

Journal:
Miscelánea: A journal of english and american studies

ISSN: 1137-6368,  2386-4834

Year of publication: 2021

Issue: 63

Pages: 77-93

Type: Article

DOI: 10.26754/OJS_MISC/MJ.20215873 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

More publications in: Miscelánea: A journal of english and american studies

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Abstract

The present essay will explore the Irish writer Sebastian Barry’s transnational rendering of the American West in his novel Days without End (2016), emphasizing his representation of neglected western questions and realities and his revision of traditional western tropes and archetypes. Barry’s approach to the American West in Days without End moves beyond the regional and national imagery of this territory, revealing its international and hybrid properties and its multiple and overlapping cultures. It is argued that Barry’s recreation of a different reality from the traditional western monomyth of masculinity, individualism, and Anglo-American conquest allows him to challenge classical frontier narratives and to address international and transcultural issues, such as gender fluidity. The novel, whose main protagonist and narrator is a poor, homosexual Irish immigrant, embraces a different West, questioning romanticized versions of the westward expansion and drawing interesting connections between the Irish immigrants in this region and the Native Americans. Overall, Days without End may be viewed as an acute depiction of the transnational dimension of the American West, proving the power of the Western to overcome its traditional formulaic and mythic boundaries and to travel across global spaces

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Funding information

1. I am indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports (PGC2018-094659-B-C21), FEDER, and the Basque Government (IT 1026-16) for funding the research carried out for this essay.

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