Transnational Russian-American Travel Writing

In this study, Marinova examines the diverse practices of crossing boundaries, tactics of translation, and experiences of double and multiple political and national attachments evident innbsp;textsnbsp;about Russo-American encounters from the end of the American Civil War to the Russian Revolution of 1905.nbsp;Marinova brings together published writings, archival materials, and personal correspondence of well or less known travelers of diverse ethnic backgrounds and artistic...
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In this study, Marinova examines the diverse practices of crossing boundaries, tactics of translation, and experiences of double and multiple political and national attachments evident innbsp;textsnbsp;about Russo-American encounters from the end of the American Civil War to the Russian Revolution of 1905.nbsp;Marinova brings together published writings, archival materials, and personal correspondence of well or less known travelers of diverse ethnic backgrounds and artistic predilections: from the quintessential American Mark Twain to the Russian-Jewish ethnographer and revolutionary Vladimir Bogoraz; from masters of realist prose such as the Ukrainian-born Vladimir Korolenko and the Jewish-Russian-American Abraham Cahan, to romantic wanderers like Edna Proctor, Isabel Hapgood or Grigorii Machtet. By highlighting thenbsp; reification of problematic stereotypes of ethnic and racial difference in these texts, Marinova illuminatesnbsp;the astonishing success of the Cold War period's rhetoric of mutual hatred and exclusion, and its continuing legacy today.