Epistolary Communication Research Articles

Sidereal Messages: Print Letters in Restoration Astronomical Writing

AbstractAstronomy, a paradigmatic observational discipline of early modern ‘science’, relied on epistolary communication for coordinating practitioners across the world, publishing discoveries and theories, and seeking their confirmation from other virtuosi. Epistolary form ‘travelled’ from an individual exchange between scholars, via the print publication of such letters for the benefit of a wider readership, to the framing of bespoke isagogic textbooks. This article explores the affordances of Restoration printed astronomical letters, contrasting their performance of familiarity between sender and recipient with the public nature of the communication. By reference to letters published in the Philosophical Transactions, individual print letters, and letter‐books, including Christiaan Huygens's Cosmotheoros, the article shows how each type utilizes the familiar and the formal aspects of the letter form differently. The print letter emerges as a form uniquely suited for performing individual authority and fashioning an expert community, as well as communicating expert knowledge to non‐specialists.

«Неокатолик» М. Э. Здзеховский и Л. Н. Толстой: история знакомства и эволюция отношения М. Э. Здзеховского к «христианскому анархизму» Л. Н. Толстого

Slavist and Polish Slavophil M.E. Zdzekhovsky came to the attention of Russian scientists relatively recently and has not yet taken its due place in domestic research. 2023 marks the 85th anniversary of his death. A Pole by origin, baptized in the Catholic faith, he remained a representative of a single space of the Slavic world and was close to that part of the Polish and Russian intelligentsia, which at the beginning of the 20th century began to be called "religious", since it put the question at the center of its worldview. about the necessity for the social development of states - religious consciousness. At the end of the XIX century. Zdzekhovsky became an admirer of L.N. Tolstoy, and then imbued with his teaching on the moral essence of Christianity. Having taken the post of professor at the University of Krakow and having moved to Austria-Hungary, Zdziechovsky continued his epistolary communication with the Russian intelligentsia and with L.N. Tolstoy, whom he called his teacher. He carried a respectful attitude towards the writer through the years of his passion for modernism (1890-1914) in the Roman Catholic Church, contact with which he found in Tolstoy's moralism. The article, based on letters and books (1890–1914) by Zdziechowski, analyzes the evolution of the attitude of the Polish “neo-Catholic” towards Tolstoy as a thinker. Not accepting Tolstoy's "Christian anarchism", Zdziechowski did not condemn his apostasy from the Church, putting the moral aspect of his search, based on epistemological pessimism, at the center of his understanding of Tolstoy's phenomenon. The author concludes that M.E. Zdziechowski's work of the writer and the moral apology of Christianity in modernism, played a leading role in Zdziechowski's attitude towards Tolstoy.

ЭПИСТОЛЯРЛЫҚ ТІЛДІК ТҰЛҒА: КАТЕГОРИЯЛЫҚ ЖӘНЕ ТИПОЛОГИЯЛЫҚ ЕРЕКШЕЛІК

The article deals with issues related to the term-status of the phrase «epistolary linguistic personality», which is used in linguistic research in recent years. The original concepts of scientists in the study of the phenomenon of linguistic personality are compared, including various criteria taken into account in the typology of linguistic personality, their views on the grouping of linguistic personality in relation to the fields of linguistic science. The analysis of linguistic and extralinguistic factors taken into account when considering ETT, the image of the author within the framework of epistolary communication and the features of his linguistic expression in the text is carried out. Based on the definition given by A.V.Kuryanovich of the epistolary linguistic personality, categorical and typological features of the epistolary linguistic personality are determined. The material for the analysis was the letters of the national hero, writer Bauyrzhan Momyshuly to M.Gabdullin, M.Auezov, M.Abdikhalykov.

“Ma palun saatke mulle üks erakiri…” Intersubjektiivsus Jaan Saalvergi kirjades Jakob Hurdale

Letters are a means of communication with people who are far away. As such, letters are always intended to create intersubjective space common to the sender and receiver of the letter. The intersubjectivity can be created in different ways; for example, alluding to shared memories, using shared idioms or inserting direct addresses into the letters. Ideally the exchange of letters is symmetrical, but the reality tends to be nonideal – letters go missing, one partner is more passive and there can be a hierarchical relationship between the sender and the receiver. This asymmetricity, however, does not diminish the potential intersubjectivity of any particular letter. The article focuses on intersubjectivity in the letters sent by a farmer and folklore collector Jaan Saalverk (1874–1932) to Jakob Hurt. In 1888 Hurt started widespread folklore collecting campaigns; he published appeals in several newspapers and with the help of these hoped to build up a dense network of local collectors. The campaign lasted until Hurt’s death in 1907, and during this time about a thousand people stepped in. Saalverk participated in the campaign in 1896–1905 and he was one of the most prolific co-workers of Hurt from Jüri parish. As in most cases the organizers of the campaigns and the local collectors did not meet in person, the collecting campaigns can be considered as epistolary events – people who participated had to be able to use the postal system and know how to address other people in epistolary exchanges. In this article I do not cover everything that was sent by Saalverk to Hurt but, taking a narrower focus, study one special genre – the letters sent by him. Letters were not an obligatory part of collecting campaigns and there were collectors who never sent a letter to Hurt. However, most of the collectors wrote letters on several occasions. Some were added to collected materials and commented on them, some were sent in between collections; most of the letters dealt with collecting activity, but there were plenty of those that addressed other issues. The folklore collecting campaigns provide quite a special epistolary context. One aspect to be noted is social hierarchy – Hurt was a parson and had a university degree, while most of the collectors were farmers, that is, had considerably lower social standing. Besides, the communication took place on the borderline between private and public spheres – letters sent by collectors were private, but Hurt often quoted them in his public reports. This context of epistolary communication was marked by asymmetry – collectors always wrote more than Hurt. In his letters to Hurt, Saalverk touches upon several issues that can be found in the letters of other collectors as well. He writes about the importance of collecting for the nation and for himself, about his concerns over the value of his contribution and the prejudices that people from his area have towards folklore collecting. While he dwells on the importance of collecting, he seems to feel empowered by perceiving it as part of the modern world (opposed to drinking and fighting as non-modern ways to spend one’s free time); but considering the prejudices of local people he seems to be puzzled and not so confident anymore. A special trait of Saalverk’s letters is the devices he uses to create an intersubjective space between himself and Hurt. He does not use the most common device of folklore collectors – metaphorical language that Hurt employs in public texts about folklore collecting. Saalverk relies on direct addresses – in most of his letters, there is a plea for Hurt to send him a private letter and explain to him the importance of folklore collecting so that Saalverk could cite these ideas to refute the prejudices of local people. These pleas are connected to two different intersubjective spaces at once. On the one hand, they try to break the substantial asymmetry of the communication in this context, on the other hand Saalverk seems to hope that if he succeeds in creating real intersubjectivity between himself and Hurt, it would help him to solve problems he is having in the intersubjective space between himself and people around him.

Eesti mobilisatsioonipõgenike kirjasuhtlusest Soome Jätkusõja ajal

The article deals with the letters of young men who escaped from Estonia to Finland during the German occupation in order to avoid the mobilization announced in 1943. Almost immediately after arriving in Finland, some of the refugees illegally emigrated to Sweden, but the majority started looking for temporary accommodation and work in Helsinki and its surroundings. The Continuation War (1941–1944) was going on, and thus a large number of Estonian male refugees were recruited into the Finnish army as volunteers; they started fighting on the Karelian front against the Soviet Union. The letters analysed in the article come from the years 1943–1944 and were sent by the men who remained in Finland to their friends who escaped to Sweden. The letters show that both civilians and soldiers faced problems caused by the political situation resulting from the Second World War and the complicated allied relations between Finland and Germany. The refugees did not have enough knowledge of life in wartime Finland and their language skills were also poor. In the course of escaping from Estonia to Finland, friends had lost sight of each other. After arriving in Finland, they started to restore their contacts in order to share experiences and find some support. The main aim of the article is to demonstrate the role of epistolary communication in finding solutions to the problems of Estonian refugees. The article gives an insight into the main topics of the letters, in which the authors of the letters tell stories about their escape from Estonia to Finland, share information about the destiny of their schoolmates and friends, but also discuss fine arts, and dream about life in peacetime. The letters show that they wish to get away from the war and continue their unfinished university studies in some war-neutral country. In their letters, they came to understanding that in order to implement their future plans, they had to get to Sweden and thus, already in the late autumn of 1943, the topic of fleeing from Finland to Sweden became dominant. At that time, the legal emigration of Estonians to another western country was limited by Finnish legislation, and, as field post letters were censored, writing about this topic was risky. The letters contain interesting examples of what verbal and visual means of expression were used to hide the true content of the messages from the censor. Compared to ordinary private letters, war letters also have another peculiarity: they contain some features of collective communication. For instance, an envelope addressed by one person to another may contain a letter consisting of messages written by several people and these messages can be intended to be distributed to several persons. Thus, wartime correspondence has similarities with the principles of information transmission in modern social media networks.

“Became Superfluous in Crimea”: Ups and Downs of Fate of Professor P. A. Dvoichenko (Correspondence with V. I. Vernadsky)

The question of the scientific life of the Crimean University (Pedagogical Institute) named after M. V. Frunze in the 20s — early 30s of the XX century through the correspondence of Professor P. A. Dvoychenko and Academician V. I. Vernadsky. It is shown that after leaving Simferopol in February 1921, Academician V. I. Vernadsky, who was involved in the birth of natural science research at the Tauride University, was keenly interested not only in the progress of these studies, but also in the fate of the scientists who made up his entourage in Simferopol. It is argued that Vernadsky’s epistolary communication with Professor Petr Abramovich Dvoichenko makes it possible to identify scientific developments initiated in the Crimea by Vernadsky, on which Crimean scientists continued to work. It is noted that the study of correspondence made it possible to reveal previously unknown pages of the biography of P. A. Dvoychenko. The novelty of the research is seen in the involvement of the epistolary heritage for the reconstruction of the historical everyday life of the scientists Vernadsky, Dvoichenko and their entourage. It is emphasized that the correspondence of scientists allows us to study the tension among the researchers of the Crimea, to see the features of scientific contacts along the line “province — center”. The author dwells on individual plots of interpersonal interaction in the teaching environment of the university.

A pagan sophist and Christian bishops: correspondence between Libanius and Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, and Optimus, Bishop of Antioch in Pisidia. Translation and Comments

The 4th-6th centuries have deservedly been called the "golden age" of epistolography. For the people of this time, epistolary communication performed several important functions. Letters not only helped to maintain contacts with correspondents, but also contributed to building a complex system of social ties. This work presents a translation of two letters from Libanius addressed to his students, who later became bishops.

“...To Confess with Each Other in a Letter...ˮ: Family Correspondence in the Understanding of Young I. V. Kireevsky

The article is devoted to the study of the family correspondence of I.V. Kireevsky in 1830, the period of his stay in Germany. As the study showed, at that time he, in contrast to the attitude towards buffoonery prevailing in epistolary communication, affirmed the priority of a confessional letter. On the one hand, this was due to the epistolary traditions of his family (established, in particular, in the correspondence of A.P. Elagina with V.A. Zhukovsky), on the other hand, very trusting relationships in his family; finally, thirdly, his personal ideas about correspondence and the needs of the soul. At the same time, Kireevsky did not return to the traditions of sentimental confessional correspondence of the second half of the 18th early 19th centuries. He rethought these traditions in the context of the current romantic trends of the 1830s. Under his pen, the letter acquired the utmost confidence, with outward restraint. The kinship of the souls of the family members affirmed by the young epistolographer and, consequently, the ultimate convergence, up to the identity of the addresser and the addressee, entailed the ultimate reduction of verbal epistolary outpourings (excessive and helpless to express the innermost meanings known to the participants in the correspondence), the merging of the genre features of the letter and diary; finally, a rethinking of the genre of travel writing.

ДЕТСКИЕ ТЕКСТЫ НА СТРАНИЦАХ ЖУРНАЛОВ ДЛЯ СРЕДНЕГО И СТАРШЕГО ВОЗРАСТА В РОССИИ КОНЦА XIX — НАЧАЛА XX ВЕКОВ

The article is focused on children’s letters, which were published in magazines for older children in the late 19th — early 20th century. The historiography of this topic is not too extensive. Research interest has focused on children’s essays and questionnaires of the Soviet period. Foreign researchers gave preference to the study of children’s texts of the First World War period. The source base of the article consists of children’s letters published in the magazines Zadushevnoe Slovo (“A soulful word”), Putevodny Ogonyok (“Guiding light”), Uchebnik (“Textbook”), and Rodnik (“Spring”). The article reconstructs editorial strategies of attracting readers to an active dialogue, the specificity of the content and the structure of children’s letters. By creating a relevant sample of letters from the maga- zine Zadushevnoe Slovo (“A soulful word”) and its analysis the conclusions are made about the subject of children’s correspondence and genre features of communication, the evolution of children’s language. The authors conclude that editorial strategies for organizing children’s communication through magazines were successful, turning periodicals into a space of children’s “virtual” communication, covering the most remote corners of the Russian Empire. Children’s correspondence illustrates the active involvement of young readers in magazine clubs and associations. The result of children’s epistolary communication was the mastery of the principles of written speech, the “growing up” of children’s texts in content and style. At the same time, personal interests, family, hobbies and journeys remained the dominant features of children’s letters.

Дружеская переписка И. В. Киреевского 1820–1830-х годов в литературном контексте

The article studies the correspondence within the circle of friends of the young I. V. Kireevsky in the literary context of the 1820s–1830s. The data are primarily considered against the background of the correspondence between A. S. Pushkin and the members of the Arzamas circle. It is suggested that, on the one hand, the epistolary communication of the Kireevsky circle features the general trends of the development of the genre of friendly writing (literary game, «buffoonery», the principle of chatter, etc.), and on the other hand, it is somewhat original. «Buffoonery» tends to combine with intimacy. Since the epistolary communication was centered around the inner worlds and relationships of the correspondents, rather than around literary issues, it became more personal and multidirectional, opening up new prospects for the development of the epistolary genre.

«Дорогому БорФеду»: новонайденные инскрипты Ю.М. Лотмана из библиотеки Б.Ф. Егорова

The publication is a reproduction of twenty book inscripts by Yu.M. Lotman from the library of B.F. Egorov. These inscriptions on books, magazines and reprints of articles form a kind of dialogical form, definitely reminiscent of epistolary communication. The published inscripts are valuable evidence of comradely and collegiate communication between two remarkable scientists, who were connected by decades of productive cooperation. The first inscript is dated 1952, and the last one discovered is 1992. For the first time, the article presents the reproduction of Lotman’s drawing, which depicts the entire family of the scientist. The inscriptions are often built on a language game, they are playful and spontaneous, but still the basis of dedicatory inscriptions are those in which the enduring importance of friendship, collegiality and morality is emphasized. The scripts are printed from autographs kept in B.F. Egorov’s home library in St. Petersburg.

Pauline Epistles as Affective Technologies: Liberating Literary Form and the Letter to Philemon

Abstract This article explores the affective potentials of the Pauline epistles by extending a proposal that I made in my book, Literary Theory and the New Testament. There, I suggested that we conceive of epistles as meaning-bearing beings that give rise to what I called epistolary embodiment. Here, I seek to create space for the inherent precarity of epistolary communication by exploring the uncontrollable interstices between affect, emotion, embodiment, and cognition. How do the Pauline letters function as affective technologies – that is, as messy mechanisms for the art, skill, craft (the technē) of reflecting, evoking, and processing affects? Engaging a range of interlocutors outside of biblical studies (e.g., Ahmed, Mullaney, Gallop, Felski), I use the letter to Philemon as a case study for exploring how biblical scholars might embrace the ambivalences that mark all epistolary communication.

THE LETTERS SPEAK: ABOUT THE OTTOMAN EPISTOLARY ART ILM-YU INSHA

The correspondence in writing and written speech is epistolary communication. Among different peoples, epistolary communication has its specificities, which refer to the language, the speech etiquette depending on the nature of the correspondence, the content and layout of the text, the famous representatives of the art of writing, etc. The present research aims to present the specifics and development of the Ottoman epistolary art ilm-yu insha and to discuss some important characteristics of the communicative genre.

The Power of the Brush: Epistolary Practices in Chosŏn Korea

The Power of the Brush: Epistolary Practices in Chosŏn Korea

S. I. Ozhegov: “I’m Writing to You on a Typewriter...” (Linguistic Sketches of 1950—1960s)

The article presents unknown evidence of epistolary communication of S. I. Ozhegov and his “correspondents” — Professor A. M. Egolin, Prince P. Obolenskiy, Mr Nedzvetskiy. The linguistic informativeness of the letters is noted. The value of the presented materials for the study of lexicology, stylistics, author’s punctuation and speech culture is indicated. Attention is drawn to the range of problems discussed in the letters, including the selection and interpretation of definitions in dictionaries (pilyonyi sakhar ‘sawn sugar’, plavlenyi syr ‘processed cheese’, gromootvod ‘lightning rod’), haplology, the formation of appellatives from the names of writers (nekrasovoved or nekrasoved), social and phonetic adaptation of foreign language vocabulary (t’emp — temp), etc. The facts given in the correspondence are commented on from the standpoint of the history of philological science, the necessary references are given, possible comparisons are made with the events and persons mentioned in the epistolary. The texts are evaluated as a fragment of a special linguistic picture of the world, in which the main place is occupied by the linguistic personality of S. I. Ozhegov, who attracted scientists of different schools and generations. The conclusion is made about the relevance of the publication of archival sources that reveal interesting circumstances of the scientific life of philologists, exposing their searches and discoveries. These materials supplement the available information about the linguistic discussions of the 1950s and 1960s, represent living portraits of scientists.

МОВНОЕТИКЕТНА ПОВЕДІНКА ПЕТРА КОСАЧА В ЕПІСТОЛЯРНОМУ СПІЛКУВАННІ З ДРУЖИНОЮ: ЗВЕРТАННЯ

The article elucidates the dominant features of the language etiquette of Petro Kosach and the style peculiarities of his marital correspondence. The study has identified the factors that probably influenced the formation of Petro Antonovych’s linguistic personality and determined the ‘surzhyk’ language status of his epistolary communication with his wife and other family members. The lexical-semantic and functional word-forming parameters of the basic register of lexemes revealed in epistolary texts are analyzed in the article. The focus is on those, which perform an appellative function. The most productive among them appeared to be one-component anthroponymic names and those based on the addressee’s first name (Olha Petrivna Drahomanova-Kosach) and its variants (Olia, Olesia, Oliunia). They are quite often combined with epithets-intimacies typical for this type of communication (most frequent – mylaia/myla [sweetheart]). The research has revealed in the letters a frequent use of address-nominations, traditional for Ukrainian folk songs and poetic speech and which are used as supporting elements of addressing his wife: holubonka, holubochka, zore, ziron’ka, zozuliatko, lasochka, lastivochka, serden’ko, serdeniatko. The author analyzes semantic and stylistic features of individually-expressed addresses that are singled out in a separate group, like Oliusiatko, Oliuniatko (Liuniatko, Liunia), Oliuniatochko, and others. They significantly expand the register of variants of anthroponymic units of the Kosaches’ family meta-language and undoubtedly affirm the active role of Petro Antonovych in its creation. The study clarifies the preconditions that led to their appearance, explains the motivation of the choice of an individual address style, the reaction to it, and evaluates the reflections of both communicators. The key finding of the study argues that the absence of addressing units in the letters of the couple or the presence of comments or graphic markers concerning each other serves as a kind of marker of some problems/misunderstandings in their interpersonal relationships and changes in an emotional state.

Ilmar Laabani (luule)dialoog Paul Celani ja Nelly Sachsiga / Ilmar Laaban’s (poetic) dialogue with Paul Celan and Nelly Sachs

Ilmar Laabani (luule)dialoog Paul Celani ja Nelly Sachsiga / Ilmar Laaban’s (poetic) dialogue with Paul Celan and Nelly Sachs

Л. Н. Толстой и П. А. Столыпин: вопрос о земле (историческое противостояние писателя и политика)

The image of P. A. Stolypin, who was burdened by the task of agrarian changes in the country, still remains the object of the “arguments of the parties”. As a rule, one of the arguments ‘for’ or ‘against’ Stolypin’s agrarian policy is drawn from the content of L. Tolstoy’s letters of 1907-1909 to the reformer and his only reply. All these letters date to the most intense period of the land “revolution” in the sovereign state, which only started half a century after serfdom had been abolished. The current epistolary situation is really indicative because it reveals the views and aspirations of the two most prominent figures of the beginning of the 20th century, who had different opinions on the solutions of the most significant issue for Russia – the one of the land. The author of the present paper has a goal to study the epistolary sources anew, to sort through the essence of the program attitudes of each of the participants of the epistolary communication, and, where practicable, figure out the history of how these attitudes had been formed; reveal the ethical, psychological and intonation texture of the letters, which should facilitate the recreation of the more precise idea of the personalities of the writer and the politician, as well as the atmosphere of the epoch. Equally wishing well-being to their compatriots, separately L. N. Tolstoy and P. A. Stolypin were convinced that the way offered by each of them was the only way to achieve this well-being, which is demonstrated in the letters, as well as the speeches of the Prime Minister at the State Duma. The confrontation of the sender and the addressee was supported by the opponents and advocates of Stolypin’s reforms. L. Tolstoy, arguing for the abolition of land ownership, for the introduction of the “single tax”, by the strength of his influence on the contemporaries objectively hindered the historically reasonable innovations, proposed by the head of the government, who considered it necessary to discontinue the commune and to encourage the working peasant, by making him the owner of the land. The letter reflects the dramatic intensity of the reform implementation process and the dramatic state of their initiator and leader.

Communication now and then: analyzing the Republic of Letters as a communication network

Huge advances in understanding patterns of human communication, and the underlying social networks where it takes place, have been made recently using massive automatically recorded data sets from digital communication, such as emails and phone calls. However, it is not clear to what extent these results on human behaviour are artefacts of contemporary communication technology and culture and if the fundamental patterns in communication have changed over history. This paper presents an analysis of historical epistolary metadata with the aim of comparing the underlying historical communication patterns with those of contemporary communication. Our work uses a new epistolary dataset containing metadata on over 150,000 letters sent between the 16th and 19th centuries. The analyses indicate striking resemblances between contemporary and epistolary communication network patterns, including dyadic interactions and ego-level behaviour. Certain aspects of the letter datasets are insufficient to corroborate other similarities or differences for these communication networks. Despite these drawbacks, our work helps confirm that several features of human communication are not artefacts of contemporary mediums or culture, but are likely elements of human behaviour.

Intertextual Inclusions in Russian Spiritual Epistolary Communication: Typology, Functions, Context

Intertextual inclusions (quotations, reminiscences, allusions) functioning in Russian spiritual epistolary communication are considered. Their types are presented: biblical (Old Testament and New Testament), patristic, prayer, hymnographic (from psalms and akathists), hagiographic. Their main functions are indicated: meaning-forming, argumentative, prescriptive, evaluative, syndicative, aesthetic. Based on the material of the letters of Russian church writers of the 20th century, the features of the use of intertextual inclusions from Christian texts that have become part of the spiritual heritage are shown in the church-religious style. The following features were revealed: (1) formation of meanings with the help of quotations, reminiscences and allusions, connected with the spiritual education of the addressee, his moral perfection, the creation of an inner man in himself, strengthening in faith, the study of the foundations of Christianity, the knowledge of church Orthodox life; (2) focus on Christian values: the gospel commandments, the doctrine of salvation, Christian virtues, and others; (3) prescribing perfection in acquiring mercy, humility, patience, obedience, sobriety, non-possession, repentance and other virtues, fighting sins, reading the Gospel and the writings of the holy fathers; an expression of evaluation of sweat in relation to sins and virtues, issues related to spiritual education and development, the fulfillment of church rules and Christian commandments, the achievement of soul salvation, following the instructions of confessors; (4) creation and strengthening of a common spiritual and religious space through the implementation of the iconic function of intertextual inclusions.