The Newfoundland Diaspora: Mapping the Literature of Out-Migration

Delisle does a serviceable job with such figures as E.J. Pratt, but she is caught in the same way as other critics by the question of whether Pratt could be the representative Newfoundland writer or instead someone so tainted by living in Toronto that he fell into marketing stereotypical images of the hardy Newfoundlander. Yet, as Delisle shows, many critics have suggested that his distance just led to mistakes, with intersections of roads that in fact never meet and various historical errors. Delisle offers many references to distinguished theorists of the diaspora, from Stuart Hall to Lily Cho, but while all are intelligent and relevant the connections never reach that higher level of insight that makes them worthy of note.