Homeless Blogs as Travelogues. Travel as a Struggle for Recognition and Emplacement

• Main Author: Halina Gąsiorowska
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca 2017-07-01
• Series: Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory
• Subjects: homeless blog; autobiographical travelogue; struggle for recognition; emplacement tramp; self-made (wo)man
• Online Access: http://www.metacriticjournal.com/article/64/homeless-blogs-as-travelogues-travel-as-a-struggle-for-recognition-and-emplacement

Applying Clifford’s broad concept of travel, I discuss American homeless blogs as autobiographical travel writing serving the struggle for recognition of the street people. The analysed travelogues are hitchhiker Ruth Rader’s Ruthie in the Sky blog and self-made woman Brianna Karp’s Girl’s Guide to Homelessness – a memoir published on the basis of the blog bearing the same title. In the travelogues I analyse the characteristic features of a personal travel writing: travel of the self, advice for future travelers, geographic information and portrayal of society in which the travel is undertaken. I claim that homeless bloggers recounting their stories of otherness and displacement in the US contribute to (re)constructing American cultural identity their personal Self, just like many other American travelers before. Additionally, homeless blogging about homelessness is shown as the process of emplacement (Casey) – the bloggers’ attempt of making themselves at home in the world.