ABSTRACT
Couser writes that memoir is the 'literary face of a very common and fundamental human activity: the narration of people's lives in their own terms. It is rooted in deep human needs, desires, and habitual practices'. Another important element that is key to the understanding and advancement of travel memoir is the use of immersion. Australia is a place where travel stories have been an enduring part of its literary identity, from the Dreamtime, songlines, and creation myths of the Indigenous people, to the journals of early explorers and the more modern adaptation and commodification of the travel writing form. While Mark Twain was more often identified as a novelist and fiction writer, his travel writing was some of the most popular in the 19th century, and his Australian travel memoir was one of the first examples of the genre in Australia to reach an international readership.
