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410 Pages·2014·22.67 MB·English

"ONLY AN ARTIST CAN MEASURE UP TO SUCH A PLACE":
PLACE AND IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY NEWFOUNDLAND FICTION
by
© Paul Chafe B.A. (Hons), M.A.
A thesis submitted to the
School of Graduate Studies
in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Department ofEnglish
Memorial University ofNewfoundland
September 2008
St. John's Newfoundland
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Abstract
This thesis is an examination of ten novels at the centre of the recent surge of artistic and
literary production in Newfoundland. This rise is not only one of quantity but quality as
well, as evidenced by the numerous national and international nominations and rewards
garnered by these texts and the ever-expanding audience they attract both within and
without Newfoundland. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Shipping News (1993)
placed Newfoundland in a wider public consciousness as a harsh, unforgiving
environment that paradoxically provides a nurturing and purifying home for the world
weary visitor. Reviews of Proulx's novel and the subsequent work ofNewfoundland
novelists like Wayne Johnston, Michael Crummey, and Lisa Moore have invariably
included comments on the rugged yet beautiful landscape and its relationship to the
hardy, joyful (and perhaps somewhat backward) people who occupy it.
The encompassing notion espoused by Newfoundland's burgeoning tourism
industry of an unspoiled land loved and worked by a tenacious people is both
compounded and confronted by the literature produced since the publication of The
Shipping News. This thesis will examine how the authors of these works present
Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders by focusing primarily on the characters and their
relation to place.
Ideas central to postcolonial theory can be seen throughout the text as several of
the protagonists are examined as postcolonial subjects striving for a notion of "home" on
an island that continually changes identity. Patrick Kavanagh's GafJTopsails, which tries
to establish a physical and even erotic connection between its characters and the land, is
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examined through an ecocriticallens. The examination ofEdward Riche's Rare Birds
relies heavily on recent touristic discourse, while the analyses of the urban novels by
Moore, Michael Winter, Paul Bowdring, and Kenneth J. Harvey use Walter Benjamin's
jlaneur and scholarly investigations of urban literature to investigate the fraying
connection between these metropolitan protagonists and their island. Always paramount
throughout this thesis is the examination ofNewfoundland identities presented by these
authors as extensions of a foundational, mythologized and troubled relationship with the
land.
IV
Acknowledgements
This thesis was written in St. John's, Mount Pearl, Comer Brook, Topeka, Kansas and
Ajax, Ontario. I have not been the easiest student to supervise and I am grateful for the
patience, promptness, and availability of my supervisor, Dr. Ronald Rompk ey. His
insights, corrections, and suggestions have made this a much stronger thesis.
For her love, support, patience, and encouragement, I am forever grateful to my
wife, Karen. I am also thankful for the love and support of my parents, Ronald and
Angela, my sister, Erin, and my brother, David. Thanks also to the members of the
Kennedy and O'Neill families (the in-laws) who have all taken an interest in my work. I
am especially thankful for my daughter, Sophie Marie Chafe, who was born November
17, 2007, and has been nothing but a hindrance to the completion ofthis thesis since she
arrived. I would not have it any other way.
I am thankful to other members of Memorial University's English Department
who have contributed to this thesis in many ways. I would like to thank the three people
who served as Graduate Chairs during my time as a PhD student: Dr. Tamas Dobozy, Dr.
Danine Farquharson, and especially Dr. Mark Cumming, who made sure I was well
stocked in fruit, coffee, and energy bars during my comprehensive examinations. Thanks
to Dr. Larry Mathews who served on my supervisory committee and in whose graduate
course I first began writing this thesis. Very special thanks to Dr. Valerie Legge who also
served on my supervisory committee and was always available to offer advice or simply
to chat. Thanks to Dr. Noreen Golfman who was always supportive and Dr. William
Barker in whose office this thesis began to take shape. I would also like to acknowledge
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Dr. Adrian Fowler, Dr. Philip Hiscock, Dr. James Overton, Dr. Jerry Bannister, Dr. Herb
Wyile and Ms. Ginny Ryan for meaningful conversations and encouragement along the
way. A special thanks to Ruby Barron, Cathy Murphy, Renee Lopez, Brenda Smith, and
Tracy Hedd who were always helpful.
Finally, "Newfoundland literature" to me was joke books and Ted Russell before
I was introduced to Michael Cook's Jacob's Wake in Professor Ronald Wallace's
undergraduate course on Canadian drama. Hearing of my interest in the subversive and
scathing presentation of Newfoundland, Professor Wallace fed my curiosity with books
from his own library: House ofH ate, Tomorrow Will Be Sunday, Random Passage, and
Gaff Topsails. This thesis is dedicated to him.
***
Several paragraphs in the Introduction previously published in "Newfoundland Poetry as
'Ethnographic Salvage': Time, Place, and Voice in the Poetry of Michael Crurnn1ey and
Mary Dalton" in Studies in Canadian Literature 32.2 (2007). Other paragraphs will
appear in "'Old Lost Land': Loss in Historical Newfoundland Fiction" in National Plots:
The Historical Novel in Canada, 1832-2005 (WLU Press).
Chapter 1 previously published as "'The scuttlework of empire': A Postcolonial
Reading of Wayne Johnston's The Colony of Unrequited Dreams" in Newfoundland and
Labrador Studies 19.2 Fall 2003.
Chapter 2 previously published as "Lament for a Notion: Loss and the Beothuk in
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Michael Crummey's River Thieves" in Essays on Canadian Writing 82 Spring 2004.
Parts of Chapter 4 to be published as '"All the qualities o' th' isle': The Shipping
News as Island Myth" in Annie Proulx and the Geographical Imagination: Rethinking
Regionalism, Place, and the Local.
Chapter 5 previously published as "Living the Authentic Life at 'The Far East of
the Western World': Edward Riche's RareBirds" in Studies in Canadian Literature 2008.
Most of Chapter 6 to be published as "Beautiful Losers: The Fliineur in St. John's
Literature" in Newfoundland and Labrador Studies:
I am thankful to the editors, guest editors, anonymous and not-so anonymous
reviewers of the above journals and collections for their contributions to the betterment of
these chapters.
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Table of Contents
Abstract 11
Acknowledgements IV
Introduction: Place and Identity in Newfoundland Literature
Chapter 1:
A Postcolonial Reading ofWayne Johnston's The Colony of Unrequited Dreams 41
Chapter 2:
Loss and the Beothuk in Michael Crummey's River Thieves 79
Chapter 3:
Island Intimacy in Patrick Kavanagh's Gaff Topsails 109
Chapter 4:
Island Myths in Annie Proulx's The Shipping News
and Michael Winter's The Big Why 158
Chapter 5:
Living the Authentic Life in Edward Riche's Rare Birds 224
Chapter 6:
The Flaneur in Paul Bowdring's The Night Season
and Michael Winter's This All Happened 250
Chapter 7:
Surviving St. John's in Lisa Moore's Alligator and Kenneth J. Harvey's Inside 295
Conclusion: "Nothing but story": Writing "Home" Through Unhomely Narratives 350
Works Cited 386