Imagining Boundaries: Visualizing Space in Mark Twain’s Following the Equator

From 1869 with The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain positioned himself as a surrogate for Americans wanting to “see” what the world offered; he remained connected to this genre for almost thirty years with the publication of his last travel book, Following the Equator. Equator also reads as a transitional piece of writing that crosses real and imagined boundaries in the evolution of Twain’s identity. Twain’s sense of place and space undergoes a transformation in his last world lecture tour; his awareness of shifting global political dynamics leads to a more methodical, anti-imperialist position. Twain’s later writings are often categorized as “dark” or “bitter”—useful for summarily dismissing them. But an attempt will be made to situate the text as a transitional work—as both a travel narrative and as a testament to the visual revolution at the end of the nineteenth century.