Świadectwo nowej tożsamości amerykańskiej w podróżniczym bestsellerze Marka Twaina Innocents Abroad

Abstract

In 1867, 32-year old Mark Twain set off onboard of Quaker City to Europe and the Holy Land. The author’s experiences, adventures and recollections of the journey, first published as travel letters in American newspapers, were later reworked into a narrative entitled The Innocents Abroad (1869). The paper discusses Mark Twain’s travelogue, suggesting a reading of it as evidence of a new American identity. Contrary to its American reception, the travelogue is little known in Poland and its first and only Polish translation by Andrzej Keyha appeared as late as 1992. For this reason, this paper begins with an analysis of the travelogue’s historical and literary context, investigating what made it a bestseller in Twain’s homeland. Then the article focuses on the image of a new American identity as emerging from Twain’s travel narrative. Unlike earlier or contemporary travel writing, particularly sentimental one, The Innocents Abroad rejects the attitude of cultural admiration towards Europe. Irreverent in tone, self-ironic and witty, Mark Twain as America’s favourite vandal seems to promote an American identity characterized by such features as assertiveness, resourcefulness and common sense, which unmasks European traditions and pretentiousness, but also satirizes American provincialisms. The article argues that such writing of the American identity contributed to the popularity of the travelogue. The paper ends with a brief overview of translations of Twain’s travel writing into Polish.