An analysis of the use of vernacular in Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End and its Spanish and Italian translations

Abstract

This chapter aims to analyse the use of non-standard language in Sebastian Barry’s novel Days Without End (2016) and how it fares in its Spanish and Italian translations, both published in 2018 and authored by Susana de la Higuera Glynne-Jones and Cristiana Mennella, respectively. The study draws on Mair’s (1992) framework for the analysis of the function of non-standard language in fiction, which focuses on three issues: assessment of the representation, limits to the use of non-standard language, and valuation. It then provides an overview of the debate on dialect translation and a four-fold typology of dialect translation techniques. Analysis of the source text throws light on a number of non-standard features of both American and Irish origin that make an important contribution to the prevailing tone of the novel. Analysis of the translations reveals that technique categorisation does not tell the whole story about the treatment of non-standard language in translation, as there is room for difference within a single category.