Billfinger, “Blackfellows,” and Forty-Niners: Travel and Judgment in Mark Twain

Abstract

While a substantial number of previous writers have invoked metaphors of travel to describe the encounters between members of different cultures, only a relatively small number of writers—most importantly Roxanne Euben and Susan McWilliams—have explored the importance of travel writing itself for political theory. While both Euben and McWilliams develop compelling cases for the importance of travel writing, neither of them distinguishes between different types of travel. In this article, I argue that an analysis of Mark Twain's travel writing suggests that different practices of travel structure the particular stances travelers take towards the Others they encounter during their travel. I extend this analysis to suggest that writers who use travel as a metaphor for cross-cultural encounters examine the different practices of encountering Others, rather than concentrating solely on the attitudes with which agents enter the encounter.