Discursive Voyages Between the United States and Nicaragua

Abstract

When the filibusters arrived in Nicaragua in mid-1855 and rapidly began to establish themselves as its dominant voice in the USA, the country had already reaped headlines in the US media for a number of years. The majority of these accounts was produced in the form of travel narratives. Most travel accounts of the 1840s and 1850s—from the bestsellers by John Lloyd Stephens and Ephraim George Squier to lesser-known examples like Karl von Scherzer and Moritz Wagner—often took a rather formulaic approach toward their subjects. The expectations inherent in the travel writing genre often predetermined what the writers included in their reports.