THE IMAGE OF NEW YORK IN AMERICAN LITERARY NON-FICTION REPRESENTED BY GAY TALESE’S A SERENDIPITER’S JOURNEY
Joanna Przeszlakowska-Wasilewska
Katedra Filologii Angielskiej Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w OlsztynieAbstract
The paper is devoted to the image of New York City created by a representative of
American post-war literary non-fiction, Gay Talese. What is especially brought into focus
in the analyzed New York – A Serendipiter’s Journey is the approach the writer employs to
present his personal picture of the city. Talese’s attitude consists in combining some key
techniques of traditional reporting with a more individual and imaginative treatment relying
on a wanderer’s/stroller’s point of view. From the perspective of a city traveller New York
is unconventionally pictured through its untypical and usually unnoticed aspects such as e.g.
forgotten places and odd occupations. It is emphasized that the writer’s image of the city
actually results from a number of pictures accumulated in the course of his own and many
other individual journeys. Finally, the paper accentuates the effectiveness of the literary
journalistic technique of merging the non-fictional with the literary in order to convey the
convincing and credible vision of reality.
Keywords:
American literary non-fi ction, city image, New York, journey, streetReferences
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Katedra Filologii Angielskiej Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie
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