19th-Century Australian Travel Writing
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorn Clemens 1835-1910) was an American writer, publisher, lecturer and humorist. His journey presented in Following the Equator encompasses America, the Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand. While in Australia Twain described in a humorous manner the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, as well as mentioning Aboriginal peoples, the Eureka Stockade, and Tasmania. The narrative was presented in a jocular manner and included poems and descriptions of Twain's dreams. It concluded with the best place name he came across in Australia: Woolloomooloo. This work was reprinted a number of times and was also published in Britain under the title More Tramps Abroad in 1897.
'Paradoxically, Australian nationalist accounts have tended to slight the earliest Australian literature by white settlers from the nineteenth century. This chapter surveys the literary history of this period, examining writers such as Oliné Keese, Ada Cambridge, Henry Kingsley, Rosa Praed, and Catherine Helen Spence. Drawing connections between these writers and the transnational Anglophone literary world centering on Great Britain and the United States, this chapter takes a comparative perspective that at once acknowledges the peripheral standing of these Australian texts and argues for their relevance to the history of the novel in English.' (Publication abstract)
'Ben Stubbs' chapter demonstrates the new depths possible within hy-brid travel memoir. He looks at its evolution from works by Mark Twain to Robyn Davidson and Don Watson, tracing the progression of the genre from Twain's self-centered imperialism to Davidson and Watson's cultural self-awareness.'
Source: Introduction, p.7
'Ben Stubbs' chapter demonstrates the new depths possible within hy-brid travel memoir. He looks at its evolution from works by Mark Twain to Robyn Davidson and Don Watson, tracing the progression of the genre from Twain's self-centered imperialism to Davidson and Watson's cultural self-awareness.'
Source: Introduction, p.7
