Egopolis in a State of Crisis: On the Role of Autobiographical Places in Reportage Prose – Charlie LeDuff’s Detroit: An American Autopsy
Egopolis in a State of Crisis: On the Role of Autobiographical Places in Reportage Prose – Charlie LeDuff’s Detroit: An American Autopsy
Author(s): Edyta Żyrek-HorodyskaContributor(s): Paulina Zagórska (Translator)
Subject(s): Theory of Literature, American Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Keywords: autobiographical places; Charlie LeDuff; reportage; autobiography; self-reportage; Detroit;
Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to reconstruct – using a geopoetic analytical framework – the key functions that autobiographical places may perform in reportage prose. The study examines Detroit: An American Autopsy (2013), by the American reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Charlie LeDuff’s. The analysis shows that the mediated image of LeDuff’s Detroit in this book emerges as an egopolis: a city abandoned and later reclaimed by the journalist, whose “biography” is tightly interwoven with the author’s own life story, shaping his identity in the process.
Journal: Forum Poetyki
- Issue Year: 2025
- Issue No: 41-42
- Page Range: 6-25
- Page Count: 20
- Language: English
