"A terrain of jagged, fearful aspect": reconsidering Patrick Kavanagh's Gaff Topsails

Patrick Kavanagh's Gaff Topsails (1996) focuses on a single day in a fictional Irish Catholic Newfoundland outport community, yet, as Lawrence Mathews notes, the events of this day comprise "a microcosm of outport society" and, by extension, Newfoundland culture and identity (Mathews 17). Kavanagh's continuous references to myths, legends, folklore, historical moments and characters, pastoral musings, romanticism, depictions of work, and other elements of the quotidian beleaguer the narrative and force it to grind past at a glacial pace, reflecting perhaps the characters' desires for the events of this day to carve a permanent marker onto the landscape.