Tribute to Newfoundland, tribute to fatherland : Michael Crummey's Sweetland in a geocritical perspective

Abstract

The article invites a reading of Michael Crummey’s Sweetland (2014) from the geocritical point of view. The novel is a fictional record of the resettlement of a fishing town situated on an imaginary island off the coast of Newfoundland. The main character refuses to leave his home, and by feigning his own death manages to stay behind when all other inhabitants depart. The proposed analysis employs such geocritical tools as geobiography, cartography, sensory experience of the land and its agency, regionalism as well as Pierre Nora’s concept of lieu de mémoire. The article analyzes the geobiographical elements in the novel to underscore the book’s status as Crummey’s tribute to his fatherland. It investigates the factors that prevented the protagonist from taking the resettlement package and the transformations that the deserted island undergoes. It also elaborates on the motif of the map in the discussed narrative and reflects on the role of Newfoundland literature in preserving regional identity.