Collection Of Letters Research Articles

My pen-pal, TPQ

ABSTRACT This essay is written as a collection of pen-pal letters addressed to Text and Performance Quarterly (TPQ) over the span of eleven years to document how our personal relationship informed my identity formation as a performance studies scholar. The letters begin with my introduction to TPQ as an undergraduate student and end with my current role as a performance studies professor. Over the years I have come to TPQ for insight and inspiration, for refuge and resistance, for community and communion. As pen-pals, I was able to radically imagine a reciprocal relationship with open communication and room for mutual growth.

Analysing inter-state communication dynamics and roles in the networks of the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation

The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) was an international organisation established post-World War I, aimed to foster intellectual relations for global peace. As this institution becomes centenary, the digitisation of archival records has democratised access, sparking renewed scholar interest and eventually enabling new research avenues. Here, we examine two letter collections from IIIC’s digitised funds, focusing on administrative and artistic/literary matters. By analysing recognisable sender-receiver pairs and their geographical origins, we construct networks revealing intricate international relationships. Notably, the community structures and roles differ between administrative and literary exchanges, suggesting distinct communication dynamics. Administrative matters depict a more egalitarian distribution. In contrast, relevant literary correspondents include Western European countries exclusively, reflecting the prominence of certain geocultural areas as well as potential geopolitical influence attempts, challenging the established historical narratives on centres and peripheries, inviting a revaluation of the IIIC’s geographical organisation and intellectual cooperation during the interwar period.

Utalentowana epistolografka czasów saskich – Konstancja z Gnińskich Czapska (rekonesans)

This article is an introductory characterisation of an extensive collection of letters written in the first half of the 18th century by the Konstancja née Gnińska, wife of a Pomeranian Voivode Piotr Jan Czapski, a woman involved in great politics but also in complicated family business. The surviving sources provide an interesting example of epistolography of the period, when more and more women of noble and magnate origin reached for the pen to express their thoughts, emotions, and expectations in various forms of writing. Often educated by home teachers or at the few monastic boarding schools, they were aware of the conventions of genre on the one hand, and on the other were able to break them, introducing their own individual touch, provided they were gifted with talent. The article shows the cultural, linguistic and stylistic richness of the letters of Konstancja Czapska, who was undoubtedly one of the most interesting correspondents of the late Baroque.

A French Jesuit in China: The Case of André Yverneau 1948–1951

During the many centuries of interaction and exchange between China and Europe, one of the most complex and ambiguous relationships was that of the Catholic Church and its missionaries in China. On one hand, they contributed to and can be seen as a part of the European imperial project of world colonisation, but on the other hand, they were instrumental in sharing and exchanging knowledge, as well as creating schools and other institutions in the places they created missions. At the same time, attempts were being made within the Catholic Church to promote the development of a Chinese clergy, although this issue remained divisive. This article examines these complex relationships through the eyes of a French Jesuit, André Yverneau, who was in China between 1948 and 1951 and who left a collection of letters back to his family describing these years. His experiences, observations, reactions and attitudes towards China and the mission are presented and analysed in order to re-evaluate some of the main debates surrounding the mission in China in the mid-twentieth century: education, language, indigenisation, and politics, both internal to the Catholic Church and with its relations in China.

Stronghold of Letters: Late Medieval Durham as a Symbol of the Epistolarity.

In this article, we will explore how the consumption of ancient letter collections and the development of letter-writing practices, known as dictaminal culture, reflect the grandeur of Durham Cathedral Priory. Located near the Scottish border and in a place with a historical influx of Scandinavians, Durham Cathedral Priory was a distant Benedictine community which stood as one of the most significant examples against the idea of cultural and educational periphery. It had one of the most comprehensive and multidisciplinary libraries in Western Europe, of which a significant part is still available and heavily invested in primary and secondary education. In that context, Durham Cathedral Library was a beacon of erudition, social and political connectiveness and humane growth. Linked to all those advancements, we can find both the consumption of ancient letter collections, which we will present as a product of various techniques and genres and the development of letter-writing techniques, which were inherited from late Antiquity but were transformed into something utterly new in medieval Europe. Therefore, we intend to demonstrate how Durham Cathedral Priory was an epistolary stronghold in all senses, which allowed it to grow further than any other distant and small community in England.

THE NARRATIVES OF CICERO'S EPISTVLAE AD QVINTVM FRATREM: CAREER, REPUBLIC AND THE EPISTVLAE AD ATTICVM

Abstract The narrative and design of Cicero's overlooked collection of letters to his brother Quintus (henceforth, QFr.) demand investigation. Within each book, the constituent letters delineate the trajectory of Cicero's life, transitioning from his political prominence to his increasing irrelevance. This narrative unfolds not only within the micro-narratives of individual books but also across the macro-narrative of the entire collection. Containing only letters from Cicero to Quintus dated between 60/59–54 and featuring a notable resemblance to the Epistulae ad Atticum (henceforth, Att.) Books 2–4, QFr., it can be argued, functions as both a ‘microcosm’ of Att. and its supplement. This article addresses these issues and argues that QFr. deserves a place alongside the ‘major’ Ciceronian collections.

The ‘personal museum’: Letters as Relic Collection in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette

This paper contributes to the existing scholarship on letters as material culture and relic culture in the nineteenth century and in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette (1853). In the novel, Lucy collects and preserves letters from absent loved ones to maintain a sense of connection to others in a life that she seems destined to live alone. In this article, I argue that her letters serve as relics of her past relationships and dead love as she desperately clings to tangible objects that bind her to other people. While scholars have concentrated on letters in Villette as material symbols of the corporeal body and romantic love, I argue that Lucy’s letters form a collection that acts as a substitute for personal relationships. To borrow a term from Deborah Lutz (2017), I assert that Lucy’s collection of letters function as a ‘personal museum’ of relics of dead love, which she carefully collects to preserve past relationships.

The Christian and the Philosopher: Defoe's The Storm Between Empiricism and Narrative

AbstractThis article examines the scientific background of Daniel Defoe's The Storm (1704). This work is a collection of letters on the Great Storm, a tempest which battered the south of England on 26–27 November 1703 causing casualties in the thousands and extensive damage. Like other extreme natural phenomena, the Great Storm was interpreted by many as divine warning. This article argues that, differently to Defoe's other works on the Great Storm, The Storm reconciles the traditional religious reading of catastrophes with recent breakthroughs in empiricist philosophy and early meteorology. In its concluding section, the article offers a reassessment of Defoe's interest in scientific ideas in The Storm so as to include early‐eighteenth‐century empiricism and examines Defoe's ambivalent attitude towards them.

A Catalog of Edgar Allan Poe Manuscripts Belonging to the Poe Museum, Richmond, Virginia; Part One: Letters

ABSTRACT While the Poe Museum’s collection of original Edgar Allan Poe letters and manuscripts is modest in number, it contains some especially significant pieces, including Poe’s early notes on Shakespeare and Milton, his autobiography, and what is quite possibly the last letter Poe wrote before his untimely death in 1849. A few of these documents are well known to scholars, but many, among which are some recent discoveries, are lesser known. This catalog, the first published survey of the museum’s holdings of documents from Poe’s hand, will provide a physical description, text, provenance, publication history, and commentary for each item. In some cases, errors made by previous transcribers will be corrected to provide the definitive text for each document. The authors intend this catalog to serve as both a resource for researchers of Poe manuscript material and a guide to the Poe Museum’s collection.

Jerome's Corpus of Letters and Network Analysis

In recent decades, network analysis has gained significant popularity as a methodological approach among scholars. This paper focuses on the letter collection of Jerome of Stridon (ca. 347‑420 AD) and employs network theory and specialized software for network analysis. The objective is twofold: to uncover statistical insights and to provide interpretations of different facets, including the actors’ roles, the most influential figures within the network, and the patterns of letter usage. Additionally, the paper presents visual representations of the network.

19세기 한･중 문인의 교류와 문화의 環流 양상

In the 19th century, intellectuals from Joseon placed great importance on interaction with scholars and literati from the Qing Dynasty. This was rooted in the background that Joseon's academia at the time showed great interest in the Qing evidential learning of the Qing Dynasty, which reached a relatively mature stage. These intellectuals, generally inclined to re- establish Joseon's Neo-Confucianism by embracing Qing's scholarly achievements, represented a trend of intellectual pursuit. “Haedong Geumseokwon(海東金石苑)” is a collection of Joseon's studies on bronze and stone epigraphy, compiled and supplemented by Qing scholar Yu Heihai(劉喜海). Starting from Jo In-yeong(趙寅永)'s compilation “Haedong Geumseokjongo(海東金石存攷),” Yu Heihai supplemented it to complete “Haedong Geumseokwon” in 1831, but it was not published. The unpublished “Haedong Geumseokwon” was secretly kept by the Qing Collector Pan Zuyin(潘祖蔭), and later published in three installments, continuing to be transmitted until now. “Haedong Geumseokwon” represents the achievement of evidential learning in Qing Dynasty being transmitted to Joseon and then returning to Qing, forming a cycle of achievements in bronze and stone epigraphy between the two countries. Through this return flow, it was evident that there was a valuable document of mutual interest and scholarly exchange between the two countries regarding Joseon's bronze and stone epigraphy. “HaewaiMukyeon(海外墨緣)” is a collection of letters compiled by Qing scholar Wang Heison(汪喜孫). The letters were sent by Joseon literati Gwon Don-in(權敦仁) and encompassed critiques from various perspectives, ranging from phonology, astronomy and arithmetic, classical literature to contemporary scholars' writings. There is controversy over whether “HaewaiMukyeon” was authored by Gwon Don-in or Kim Jeong-hee(金正喜). Especially, examining the content of the letters sent by Wang Heison to the Lee Sang-jeok and to Kim Jeong-hee raises doubts about Kim Jeong-hee being the author. The crucial point is that “HaewaiMukyeon” is preserved in Qing Dynasty as a valuable cultural asset demonstrating Joseon's academic achievements at that time. In general, culture refers to the phenomenon of spreading from the center to the periphery and then circulating back from the periphery to the center, which is called the circulation of culture. In the circulation of culture, mutual roles are emphasized, and the process, possessing dynamism, is seen as holding greater significance above all else. “Haedong Geumseokwon” and “HaewaiMukyeon” serve as excellent examples demonstrating this circulation of culture.

Critical Review of Collections of Iqbal's Letters Compiled by Syed Muzaffar Hussain Barni

The work of research and criticism demands honesty and sincerity. The ideas of a thinker are preserved by editing his literary works. Syed Muzaffar Hussain Barni compiled Iqbal's letters which are considered as an important literary achievement because such letters always help the researchers to know about the literary trends of a particular era as well as the style and diction of the writer. There are both positive and negative critical opinions on his work. Compiling these letters was not an easy task. The scope of Iqbal's letters is very wide. It was very difficult to get them together. Mr. Barni completed this difficult compilation that made an easy access to Iqbal's letters. The work was lengthy, so there are some mistakes as well which have been identified. Barni's level of this effort builds new avenues of research and criticism. This has widened the scope of Iqbal Studies.

Madame de Sevigné i król Jan III Sobieski – mistrzyni i mistrz epistolografii francuskiej i polskiej XVII w.

Madame de Sévignéand King John III Sobieski –the masters of 17th century French and Polish epistolography Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marchionesse de Sévigné (1626–1696) and John Sobieski (1629–1696) lived during almost the same period of time. The marchioness was three years older, they died in the same year. Lady de Sévigné became a famous epistologra- pher already during her life and shortly after she died. Sobieski’s letters got published only in the 19th c. and their literary value was underlined for the first time by a renown translator of French literature, Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, who compared the king’s letters with those of madame de Sévigné. What the marchioness’s and the king’s letters have in common is that these were all private letters to their closest and beloved ones -marchioness’s to her daughter, lady de Grignan and Sobieski’s to his wife, Maria Kazimiera d’Arquien. Due to the distance and longing, a uniquely inspiring epistolography was created. There are of course a lot of differences between their letters, however a number of common threads may be noticed. Many times did lady de Sévigné and Sobieski express a strong belief that their feelings towards the addressees are rare and extremely strong. Similarly, they considered them to possess exceptional traits, not only physical beauty but also outstanding spiritual and mental qualities. In their letters they often articulated their concern about health issues, emphasising that their own physical state depends very much on the condition of their beloved ones. In- spired by Molier’s comedies they knew very well from books and theatres, they would also refer critically to doctors’ opinions. The marchioness was also delighted with her daughter’s knowledge of medical issues and her interest in the philosophy of Descartes, describing it as “cartesienne” and call- ing the philosopher her spiritual father. Although Sobieski’s letters do not contain any philosophical reflection, he is known to be familiar with Cartesianism and to have kept the works of Descartes in his library. What is characteristic for both collections of letters and also unique for this period, is a close and warm relation with children’s world – marchioness’s grandchildren and So- bieski’s children. The grandmother and father used to take a lot of interest in their health, cared about their illnesses, gave advice on intellectual development. In the marchioness’s and the king’s letters some pre-romantic elements are also present which are visible in their attitude towards the nature – e.g. Lady de Sévigné mentioning her night walks under the moonlight and Sobieski contemplating the sunset.

Письма шейха Сайфуллы-кади Башларова из частного собрания муфтия Габдурахмана Расули: исторические и источниковедческие аспекты в контексте духовных связей суфийских шейхов Северо-Восточного Кавказа и Волго-Уральского региона на рубеже ХIX–XX вв.

This study is a brief source analysis of a previously unknown collection of letters in Arabic addressed by Dagestani Sheikh Sayfullah-Qadi Bashlarov to his spiritual mentor Sheikh Zainullah ash-Sharifi (Rasulev). The letters were discovered in the manuscript collection of Sayfullah-Qadi Bashlarov’s successor (mazun) the Sufi sheikh Hassan-hilmi al-Kakhi. At request of Gabdurakhman Rasulev, the son of Sheikh Zainulla Rasulev, who probably kept their autographs, the letters were copied by Da-gestani Alim Kurbanali al-Muni, who lived in the town of Troitsk for a long time, The letters con-tain unique information from the biographies of Sheikhs Sayfullah-Qadi Bashlarov and Zainullah ash-Sharifi. The study of such sources helps to show true relations between those two outstanding Muslim intellectuals and, in general, enriches the source base for studying the history of cultural contacts between Muslim peoples of the Volga-Ural region and the North Caucasus as parts of the Russian Empire during the second half of the 19th–early 20th centuries.

Safety between the lines – the role, meaning and practice of pen-pal writing in the life of a young Finnish evacuee girl (1939–1945)

ABSTRACT This article examines the role, meaning, and practice of letter writing in the lives of two Finnish girls during the Second World War (WWII). We use a particular set of letters (N = 41) from the wartime letter collection kept in the Tampere University Folklife Archives and argue that they give us an interesting perspective on not only the girls’ wartime experiences, but also on the role of communication and pen-pal writing in everyday life. In particular, we focus on one evacuee – Ritva – who during the period 1939–1945 changed class six times, requiring her to constantly adapt to new class environments and peer relationships. However, from 1942 onwards, the correspondence with her pen pal Ella provided Ritva with a sense of continuous friendship free from the pressures of local peers. We suggest that pen-pal writing formed an arena of communication which allowed the two girls to share experiences, nurture mutual feelings, and give each other support – elements which might have sometimes been lacking in relationships they had locally with adults and peers at this time. In theoretical terms, this article is inspired by approaches from the history of experiences and history of emotions. These provide useful concepts for pinpointing the historical and cultural layers involved in the social process of cultivating a pen-pal correspondence.

Nomima and the Laws of Ancient Crete: A Personal Memoire

My paper discusses the influence Nomima had on The Laws of Ancient Crete c. 650–400 BCE, a collection of inscriptions I produced together with my colleague Paula Perlman. Nomima influenced both the format and the content of our work. I also discuss the benefits of this format, which I feel is a model for epigraphical publication. I also describe the influence Henri van Effenterre had on me and my career and relate a few of the memorable episodes during the course of our thirty‑year friendship.

Letters from ALZHIR

This article aims at offering a glimpse into the emotions of the prisoners in the camp ALZHIR (Akmolinskiy lager' zhen izmennikov Rodiny, Akmolinsk Camp of Wives of Traitors to the Motherland), Kazakhstan in Soviet times. Alzhir was a female forced labour camp in the time of the Soviet Union, a Gulag that darkened the history of the Soviet Union. This investigation will take place through a collection of letters, both from prisoners and their children, translated in English for the first time. Letters represent the only tool through which prisoners were able to communication with their families, and through which they were able to keep their maternal sense from which they had been violently deprived. The letters reflect the moods, needs, worries and the hopes of both the prisoners and the children left behind. The discussion concerning the letters reveals that the communication with the world outside of the camps (allowed only from 1940) was not enough to give back the sense of normality that the women yearned for whilst imprisoned.

Canonical regulation of family and marriage issues in Christian denominations: Comparative analysis

The paper is focused on the issues of canonical regulation of marriage and family relations in various Christian denominations. The objective of the paper is to identify the models of normative regulation of the family and marriage in Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism, as well as the changes that have taken place in this area. Based on the analysis of normative documents (collections of canons, encyclicals and letters of the popes, doctrinal documents of Protestant denominations, social doctrines and concepts of various confessions), it is shown that in Catholicism an evolutionary mechanism is used, which is expressed in the creation of new formal canons binding on all church members. A flexible response to a change in the system of values in Protestantism is based on a revolutionary mechanism that allows for various interpretations of biblical provisions. Orthodoxy, using the ancient canons, retains the traditional mechanism of norm-creating, makes attempts to adapt them creatively to contemporary reality, and relies on the principle of economy. Guidelines in this process are new regulations adopted at the local level. Understanding the peculiarities of the ecclesiastic law regulations of marriage and family relations can contribute to the establishment of interfaith dialogue and the search for a cross consensus that contributes to the joint solution of contemporary social problems.

“A Volume of Manuscript Poems &c”: Phillis Wheatley Peters's Lost Book and a Found Proposal

This essay revisits the history of Phillis Wheatley Peters's “volume of manuscript poems &&.,” a collection of handwritten poems, which her husband, John Peters, advertised for its return in late 1784, just days after her death. Since no second volume of poems was published, and the manuscript has never been recovered, it has been presumed to be and lamented as lost. By taking stock of what is known about PWP's archive at the time of her death and the process of its painstaking recovery, I seek to temper this account of destruction and loss by calling attention to the discoveries of librarians, scholars, and collectors in the nearly two and half centuries since her death. It is in this spirit of continuing and collaborative recovery that this essay contributes new evidence about a final, posthumous proposal for a collection of PWP's poems and letters, printed over a five-week period, in July and August 1791, in Thomas's Massachusetts Spy; Or, the Worcester Gazette, a proposal that provides a clearer picture of PWP's archive as it existed at her death, and that can guide future recovery work.

«Писатель-мещанин, ноющий в болоте»: первое знакомство советского читателя с Э. Хемингуэем

The paper examines early Soviet reception of Ernest Hemingway's works. The research is based on the readers’ letters to Goslitizdat (State Publishing House) from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts (RGALI). A small collection of letters (1935–1936) shows readers’ reaction to the first Hemingway’s Soviet book editions: a short story collection Death in the Afternoon (1934) and Fiesta (1935). The readers unanimously condemn Hemingway for his “decadent” prose and Goslitizdat for publishing such “absurd” and “harmful” books. The only exception is a short positive review of the novel A Farewell to Arms (1936) sent to Goslitizdat in 1937. To uncover the reasons for the negative readers’ reception one should turn to the literary criticism of the 1934–1935, especially the essays by Ivan Kashkin who introduced the new author to the Soviet reading audience. A comparative analysis of readers’ feedback and critical discourse shows that the ambivalent and even contradictory image of the writer created by the critics made the readers think of Hemingway’s works as “decadent”, “bourgeois” and alien to Soviet people. Another reason was the innovative nature of Hemingway’s modernist prose which seemed obscure, confusing and unintelligible; the Soviet reader obviously preferred “clarity” and “simplicity” of Erskine Caldwell’s or Theodore Dreiser’s realistic writings. The situation changed by the 1937, when Hemingway was praised by both Soviet critics and readers as an anti-fascist writer, a heroic defender of the Spanish Republic.