ABSTRACT

While it is widely understood that rivers took on new symbolic power as avatars of nationalism in the late nineteenth century, less examined is their use as a space for Transatlantic cultural flow, and transnational commentary and critique. This article explores the ways in which a variety of Americans abroad in this period centred the Thames – newly charged with nationalist sentiment – in their accounts of Britain. In particular, it analyses Elizabeth Robins and Joseph Pennell’s travel narrative The Stream of Pleasure, first published as the lead article in the ‘Midsummer Holiday Issue’ of The Century Magazine in 1889, as an exemplary text in which both artist and writer play with the image of the river in ways that chime with much wider Transatlantic debates at this moment.

摘要

尽管人们普遍认为，河流在19世纪后期成为民族主义的化身，但它象征着新的象征力量，但人们很少将其用作跨大西洋文化交流，跨国评论和批判的空间。本文探讨了在此期间，各种海外美国人如何以泰晤士河为中心，将泰晤士河-新近受到民族主义情绪的影响-集中在他们对英国的描述中。尤其是，它分析了伊丽莎白·罗宾斯（Elizabeth Robins）和约瑟夫·潘内尔（Joseph Pennell）的旅行叙事《快乐之流》（The Stream of Pleasure），该小说首先作为主要文章发表于1889年，在《世纪杂志》的“仲夏假”中，作为艺术家和作家在其中扮演的典范。此刻的河流形象吸引了更多泛大西洋彼岸的争论。