The Rock Observed: Studies in the Literature of Newfoundland

Since the beginnings of white settlement in Newfoundland, writers have set down greatly varying impressions of its landscape and distinctive culture. Descriptions of the land's abundance and beauty collide with reports of its unrelieved barrenness. The image of a 'barbarous, perfidious, and cruel' people is countered by testimony to their shrewdness, resourcefulness, and good humour. The Rock Observed is a study of how Newfoundland has been perceived over the centuries by the islanders themselves and by outsiders. It offers an integrated survey of Newfoundland literature, culture, and history. It illustrates the forces that have made Newfoundland a special place and Newfoundlanders a special people, 'a breed apart.'
Against a background of political, economic, and cultural history, Patrick O'Flaherty submits the conflicting literary impressions of his island to a searching critical analysis. He finds the writings of explorers, missionaries, settlers, adventurers, novelists, and poets to be limited, or enlivened, by their own characters and preconceptions. There emerges a sympathetic but unsentimental picture of Newfoundland and its people, informed throughout by O'Flaherty's keen awareness, based on an outport upbringing, of what Newfoundland has been and is.

Author: Patrick O'Flaherty

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Publication Date: Dec 15, 1979

Number of Pages: 256 pages

Binding: Paperback or Softback

ISBN-10: 1487578822

ISBN-13: 9781487578824