Epistolary Genre Research Articles

Falling Towers: A Letter to my Child’s Teacher

Using the epistolary genre, this editorial is embedded in a fictional letter written to a teacher. The discussion is spurred by a teacher writing a mark in bold felt pen directly on a student’s drawing of the Eiffel Tower. This reflexive inquiry laments the deep wounding of the joy of learning by metrics, measurements and efficiency, while registering the imperative to change this path. Using the metaphor of the “tower” to theorize current damaging curricular practices, this editorial questions how, amidst the uncontrol and fear in a global pandemic, the challenging truths of unmarked graves, devastating climate disasters, global food insecurity, among other sufferings, teachers can imagine hope-inspired, healing-centred pedagogies and ”assertive mutuality . . . [through] co-action, interconnection . . . [and] the capacity to act and implement as opposed to the ability to control others” (Kreisberg, 1992, p. 86). The task of recognizing, naming and dismantling towers—in essence, leaving one’s home, and building new relational frames, while the world is falling—requires extraordinary hope, as shown in the articles in this issue.

The Image of a Pious Young Man in Epistolary Genre of the XVI Century (on the Example of Ulrich Zwingli’s Letter to his Stepson Herald Meyer)

The article considers some features of the epistolary genre from the point of view of its pedagogical potential. A Letter from the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli to his stepson Herald Meyer is also briefly analyzed. According to the author, this work is the most complete and, at the same time, concise example of a letter of instruction to a young person. It reflects three directions of the young man's relationship: with God, with himself, and with the world (surrounding people). In General, the same scheme of relations is already present in the ancient era (Cicero's treatise «On duties»).

Überlegungen zu Form und Gattung in Hieronymus’ Briefen

Abstract I propose to approach a selection of Jerome’s Letters with the theory of generic modes as established by Alastair Fowler and Klaus W. Hempfer, and with the concept of generic enrichment developed by Stephen J. Harrison. Using these concepts the epistolary genre, which is known for its open nature and diverse forms, can be approached from a shifted aesthetical perspective. My analysis focuses on two exemplary letters. In the first of these two letters, Jerome asks a friend to join him in his ascetic lifestyle in the desert (Hieronymus, Epistula 14). To illustrate the progress of his arguments Jerome employs traditional nautical metaphors and develops a literary celeuma. He does this by turning it into a model for the letter’s form and by extending the epistolary genre through a hymn-like mode. Thus, the author christianises the celeuma and turns it into a hymn. In the second letter, Jerome asks a Christian widow to leave Rome and to join him in Bethlehem (Hieronymus, Epistula 46). The author integrates a satirical mode in some passages that allude to the pagan and biblical traditions of satire. He therefore turns his satirical description into an argument supporting his purpose. Both the hymn-like elements and the satirical passages do not have the complete outer form of the according genres but do rather correspond to the concept of modes. The epistolary genre is therefore extended but not replaced by these modes and gains additional meaning through their integration.

Mujer que sabe viajar: autorrepresentación y subjetividad femenina en Cartas a Ricardo, de Rosario Castellanos

This paper reflects on the relationship between the female traveling experience and the epistolary genre through a reading of Rosario Castellanos’s Cartas a Ricardo as travel literature. The aim is to analyse the hybrid nature of the letter as a genre that allows the exploration of ideas and confessing or revealing affects during particular processes of constructing female subjectivities. Different than conventional travel chronicles, it is argued that the travel accounts transmitted through the female epistolary genre can throw light on physical and emotional displacement, but also on the intellectual and creative work of women in (self)censored or repressed environments. It is concluded that for Castellanos both traveling and writing are conscious acts of intellectual and gender freedom.

Проблема виховання і освіти дітей в контексті листів піфагорійських філософинь

The article reveals in detail the understanding of raising children in the context of two pseudo-epigraphic letters of Pythagorean wonan thinkers – Theano and Myia of Crotone. Based on these letters, it was found that pedagogical issues were important in general for the whole Pythagorean tradition. In fact, we can say that this early Greek philosophical school was the first to systematically and comprehensively approach the problem of upbringing and education in ancient society. It is hypothesized that this topic is not accidentally in the center of attention of these philosophers, because their authority was the greatest among all other representatives of this philosophical school. The author’s position is proved that Theano of Crotone letter to Eubule focuses on moderation in education, which is aimed at avoiding luxury, fulfilling all children’s whims, comfort. This is the purpose of hardening in difficult circumstances in order to withstand with dignity all the potential difficulties of adult life. Accordingly, if you do not raise a child in certain restrictions, then, according to Theano, it may well be unprepared for certain trials that may occur. The thesis is substantiated that the key task of upbringing and education, according to Myia of Crotone letter, is moderation, prudence and balance, which is based on both archaic elements and Hellenistic plots, which testifies to the skill of writing this letter. It is revealed that the Pythagorean principles of education, according to both philosophers, have no gender difference. This is because both girls and boys, if they grow up in luxury, comfort and do not know the limitations, can potentially become dangerous both for themselves and for society as a whole. It is emphasized that according to the style of writing, these letters are not so much moral and ethical as paraenetic epistolary genre, ie they act as advice on the upbringing and education of the younger generation. Because of this, these letters are such sources of ancient culture, which are one of the few that are devoted to the philosophical understanding of upbringing and education.

Michael Psellos on Rhetoric

"The present paper is focused on Psellos’ letters, which contain a number of remarks on his role as a teacher of rhetoric and as a rhetor active at the imperial court, as well as many comments on his correspondents’ and his own style – including considerations on kinds and levels of style, Atticism and sophistry, and judgements on the great rhetorical models of the past. The examination of all these passages makes it possible to highlight the way Psellos constructs his own image as an expert in rhetoric, familiar with Hermogenean theories, but also heavily influenced by Dionysios of Halikarnassos’ aesthetic conceptions. The great diversity of models with whom he identifies testifies to his stylistic versatility and his frequent adoption of a polemical stance can be read as a claim to independence of mind and originality. Keywords: rhetoric, epistolary genre, levels of style, aesthetic, Atticism. "

ПИСЬМА ВО ВЛАСТЬ В ЭПИСТОЛЯРНОМ НАСЛЕДИИ Ф.М. ДОСТОЕВСКОГО

One of the urgent issues of modern Russian studies is the study of letters to the power of Russian writers. It is legitimate to single out these addresses in a special genre, which, in contrast to the genre of friendly writing, has practically not been studied. Fedor Dostoevsky wrote letters to Alexander I, V. A. Dolgorukov, A. E. Timashev, A. A. Suvorov, heir to the throne A. A. Romanov, and Grand Duke K. K. Romanov. Of particular note is the voluminous correspondence between Dostoevsky and K.P. Pobedonostsev – correspondence between a writer and an official of such a high rank is very rare (it should be noted that the addresser and the addressee were connected not only by business, but also by personal relations). The subjects of Dostoevsky’s letters to the authorities are very diverse – requests to move to the capital, creativity, literary and social life in Russia and Europe, the publication of “Citizen” and others. On the basis of F.M. Dostoevsky’s letters to the Emperor, the Tsareviches and their confidants of various ranks, one can trace the relationship with the authorities and clarify a number of already obtained facts and assessments. The messages of Russian writers to power are a special kind of epistolary genre that has both aesthetic value and is a historical document – evidence of the relationship between power and literature in our country. Obviously, the authorities were interested in cooperation with writers, and specific rulers showed interest in the work and in the personality of Dostoevsky.

The Apocalypse of John: the architectural symbolism of visual exegesis

A hermeneutic literary criticism of the last text of the New Testament canon can be complemented by an architectural criticism of metaphorical and rhetorical structures and plots, presented as an ultimate resolution to fundamental problems, posed both by the kerigma and by the Hellinised religious experience of the Old Testament (apocalyptic and epistolary genres). The text of the Revelation has staging structures that imply its performative reading, and suggested radical eschatological ways of resolving conflicts allow for equally radical exegetic methods, with a feminist orientation, for example. Analytical metaphors that we have employed, taken from the arsenal of art history, such as ‘polyptich’ or ‘non-figurative painting’, prompt us to use an experimental paradigm of diagrammatics: a visualization of compositional schemata as the equivalents of a cognitive apparatus. The hearer/reader has the opportunity to set off on an eschatological journey with the author of the Revelation but also to have an epistemological walk with its exegetes and commentators.

Hiperión como novela epistolar

El objetivo del presente artículo es abordar la interrelación entre el género epistolar y el Bildungsroman en Hiperión, de Friedrich Hölderlin. Sus características como novela epistolar son congruentes con sus características como Bildungsroman, por lo que se encuentra justificado el género epistolar. De tal forma, el elemento de intimidad, la necesidad de un interlocutor y el tratamiento fragmentario del tiempo propios de la novela epistolar son funcionales a la formación del protagonista y del lector y al manejo temporal inherentes al Bildungsroman, respectivamente. Se analizarán ambos géneros (teórica y específicamente en la novela) y las mencionadas características en Hiperión.

(Авто)биографический дискурс в эпистолярии А.С. Хомякова

The article discusses autobiographical and biographical discourse in the epistolary of A.S. Khomyakov. It turns out that both, and especially the former, are underrepresented. Khomyakov steadily replaces autobiographical elements typical of the epistolary genre and thereby expected by the reader with biographical elements, almost always in the form of obituary. As a rule, those are obituaries to public figures who had left a mark in history, influenced contemporaries, and possibly descendants — what mostly interests Khomyakov as the author. Paying primary attention to personal qualities, the scope and degree of self-realization of these qualities, he almost never covers external, factual side of their lives. Thus, the epistolary includes, on the one hand, paradoxical elements of the obituary and the biographical genre without a typical biographic narrative, while on the other hand, a highly individualized version of the obituary, a genre that, at a time, seemed to have hopelessly exhausted itself and become clichéd.

The ‘Archeology’ of historiography as a rhetorical agon. On the juxtaposition of hellenic writers in the Epistula ad Pompeium by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his short theoretical treatise entitled “A Letter to Pompeius” (Epistula ad Pompeium) presents an exciting discussion on rhetoric mastership and scholarship written in an epistolary genre. The treatise begins with critical remarks Dionysius once addressed to Plato. The author admits to his addressee (Cn. Pompeius Geminus) that he is enchanted by Plato’s dialogues. From the trio of Greek speech-makers who are recognized as the most brilliant in this respect – Isocrates, Plato, and Demosthenes (such was Dionysius’s selection) – the Halicarnassean rhetorician deliberately dwells on Plato (Lysias, Isocrates, Demosthenes and other Greek orators are the subject of his other aesthetic works). Embarking on a wider discussion, Dionysius repeatedly points out that these studies are always aimed at establishing the truth. The longest chapter, 3 compares works of the first Greek historians and the mastery of their style. Dionysius points out the rivalry of the many masters of the genre, but the main characters of the chapter are Herodotus and Thucydides. The “father of history” (Dionysius’ contemporary and paragon) surpasses the Athenian historian on all counts examined by the author. This article examines συγγραφεύς / συγγραφεῖς or συγγραφή occurring in the Pomp. by Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The rhetorician, when referring to Herodotus, Thucydides (ch. 3), Theopompus (ch. 6), Hellanicus, Charon (3.7) and the Greek historians en masse (6.7), calls them “syngraphers”. Dionysius uses the word συγγραφή only as applied to historical works of Theopompus of Chios (6.2, 3, 6). The article also draws upon the Halicarnassian philologist’s other works in which he mentions syngraphers-historians, who are set off against poets and orators. Dionysius regards the words συγγραφεύς, ὁ ἱστορικός, ἱστοριογράφος as equivalent and interchangeable. In this work, Dionysius examines different styles of ancient writers. Here, by examining the works by the authors of the 5th and 4th centuries BC (written three to four centuries before his time) he seems to be performing a peculiar experiment of theoretical “archaeology”. But the rhetoric and philological “archaeological” study conducted by Dionysius of Halicarnassus reveals not only his scholarly interest in the analysis of works of the writers of the past, but also his focus on the present – both in literary and cultural aspects. Plato is under the influence of Thucydides, but Thucydides is inferior to Herodotus, Herodotus produces works that surpass those of Charon and Hellanicus, while Theopompus is superior in style to Demosthenes himself and surpasses Isocrates – the “most brilliant” rhetoricians of the past. By presenting this gallery of names, Dionysius shows comparison as agon – of styles, genres, authors, their subject matters, intensive narrative, and he himself contends with the writers of the past. Seeing mastery of rhetoric as a peculiar agon stretching over centuries and across the agon of rhetoricians, philosophers and historiographers, Dionysius identifies the circle of best writers, and himself joins it. He claims that in the scholarly rhetoric “the truth is dearer still” and establishes the criteria to judge the classic writers. And the critic realizes that he will be judged according to the same (his own) criteria

Послание Федора Карпова к митрополиту Даниилу и письмовник «Посланием начало…»: к вопросу о взаимодействии письма и письмовника в древнерусской литературе

The article raises the question of the interaction of ancient Russian scribes and individual samples of the epistolary genre. A connection is established between the message of Fedor Karpov to Metropolitan Daniil and the scribe “The beginning of the messages...”, created, like the mentioned message, in the 16th century. Both the message and the scribe actualize the intention of business writing, teaching message and secular friendly writing. The first introduces a respectful and complementary tone (the addressee is lower than the addressee), the second — the educational one (the addressee is higher than the addressee), the third is actually friendly (they are “equal”). This allows Fedor Karpov to flexibly conduct an epistolary conversation with the correspondent: to attract him to himself, to inspire confidence, then, already having this trust, contrast his point of view with his own and present it as authoritative, finally, boldly affirm the “equivalence” of both points of view. This is a completely secular, humanistic position inherent to Fedor Karpov, a secular man, a diplomat, one of the early Russian Europeans. He begins to speak with Metropolitan Daniel in the language familiar to Metropolitan Daniel, in the traditions of ancient Russian epistolary communication: he self-abases and exalts his interlocutor, introduces the antithesis “addressee-sinner / addressee-righteous”. His correspondent is characterized as was done in the scribbler “The beginning of the messages...” through his high position, wisdom, enlightenment, purity and beauty of the soul, metaphors of flowering, fragrance and light. Myself — by the principle of contrast. Introduces, like the author of the scribe, the traditional medieval motif of sailing and the image of the ship, raises the question of “helmsman”. But if in the scribe, which focuses mainly on the epistolary communication of the subordinate with the boss and the establishment of relations, promotion on the career ladder, the boss was given the honorary role of «helmsman», then in the message of Fedor Karpov the aforementioned motive and image are reinterpreted in a secular way. The point is that for monks the path lies to the heavenly harbor and “helmsman” is Christ, while the secular man “swims” in the earthly world and hardly needs a “helmsman”, he chooses the path. Supporting his judgments with quotes from the Holy Scriptures (strictly selected and arranged in the text, of course, exactly as the author needs it), Fedor Karpov remains in the Old Russian tradition, approved by the scribe for the epistolary genre. But he is not limited to this tradition. Quotes from ancient literature are adjacent to quotes from the Holy Scriptures in the epistle to Metropolitan Daniel, and the judgment of Aristotle turns out to be much more authentic for Fedor Karpov than, say, the apostle Paul. Thus, from a sphere close to the addressee, the author transfers epistolary communication into his sphere. This secular quotation plan was completely absent from the scribe, but the scribe, offering users, in accordance with the title, only the “beginning” of the messages, provided great opportunities for experimentation. Fedor Karpov, to whom the European individual beginning was so dear, could not help but use them. Based on the scribe, he created, on the one hand, a modern, flawlessly “correct” letter written “according to the rules of rhetoric”, as befits an educated person, and on the other hand, a letter that is very independent, very personal, reflecting his personality. However, there is a likelihood of feedback: perhaps the scribe did not form the basis of the creative experiment of Fedor Karpov, but the epistolary text of Karpov formed the basis of the scribe.

Самый «персональный» жанр древнерусской литературы

The paper attempts to identify the originality of epistolary genre against the background of other genres of Old Russian literature, which, as is known, was characterized by the interaction of genres, genre synthesis. The message stands out against the general background as the most “personal” genre. It articulates quite clearly the situation of communication of, as a rule, two specific personalities — addresser and addressee. It is thereby very targeted and situational, focused on the needs and goals of participants in the epistolary dialogue. It more or less actualizes the images of both communicants. The author of the letter enjoys freedom in choosing the self-characteristics and characteristics of the addressee, in choosing the forms of addressing the latter as well as choosing the composition of the text, etc. However in reality the “personality” of the epistolary genre is reserved and rather arbitrary. Addressers to addressees, widely varying in the whole body of messages, differ, in essence, only in form. In content, they are synonymous. They carry not so much personal as depersonalized, transpersonal characteristics, usual for ancient Russian literature, reflecting social situation, spiritual relations of the participants in correspondence (spiritual father / spiritual child, etc.), etc. They reflected in their own way the requirement of etiquette of epistolary communication established in the era of antiquity and involving complementarity of appeals to the addressee. Thus, the “personality” of the message, on the one hand, ensured its organic inclusion in the system of genres of ancient Russian literature. On the other hand, it allowed him to preserve and develop characteristic features that distinguished the epistolary genre from antiquity and could provide him with a future at a time when the genre system would lose its synthetics, each of them would have to defend its right to autonomy; but at the same time, “personality” was fraught with a danger of exclusion of the epistolary genre from literature.

Belonging and Narrative: A Theory of the American Novel by Laura Bieger

Reviewed by: Belonging and Narrative: A Theory of the American Novel by Laura Bieger Lieven Ameel BIEGER, LAURA. Belonging and Narrative: A Theory of the American Novel. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2018. 182 pp. $40.00 print; $0.00 e-book. Laura Bieger’s study Belonging and Narrative: A Theory of the American Novel looks at developments in the history of the American novel from the late eighteenth to the early twenty-first century, with a focus on how literary narratives engage with questions of belonging. In addition to an introductory chapter, which outlines the key concepts and which contextualizes the study’s focus within the broader fields of narrative and American studies, the book consists of four analysis chapters. Each analysis chapter focuses on one particular text, respectively: Charles Brockden Brown’s Edgar Huntly (1799), Sarah Orne Jewett’s The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), Henry Roth’s Call It Sleep (1934), and Richard Powers’s The Echo Maker (2006). The study is structured chronologically, but the different analysis chapters also have thematic orientations, with the book structured around four “iconic American sites—the frontier, the region, the ghetto, the homeland” and around four different kinds of texts: “the letter, the sketch, the found object, and the brain-as-storytelling-machine” (9, 10). This adds to the chronological progression a fascinating way of branching out into questions of space and literary genre (although the categorization according to four different models of the human psyche, vis., empiricist, Swedenborgian, Freudian, and neuroscientific models, feels much more tentative). Belonging and Narrative displays a keen interest in how the American novel has provided a way to structure relationships to space and to home. Belonging is understood here as “the desire for a place in the world” and one of the key aims of the study is “to solicit an understanding of narrative as the mediating structure to which we turn to feel and direct our yearning for a place in the world” (75). By examining how this desire is given voice in particular iterations of the novel, this study also zooms in on questions of identity and narrative agency. While the book includes a substantial introduction, a somewhat longer articulation of the role of different categories and understandings of belonging—and of whether these are all compatible with the focus of this study—would have been helpful. Belonging can be approached as belonging through material means (57) or belonging in an existential (30) or a phenomenological sense (25–29); the urge to belong can be directed specifically to a spatial environment or regional community (e.g., Jewett), or to the (nuclear) family (e.g., Roth); within the context of the American novel, one added dimension is the extent to which diverse narrative voices can aspire to belong to the canon of the [End Page 427] American novel. More generally, are belonging as dwelling, belonging as identity, and belonging as autonomy compatible with each other within this study? In part, these questions could have been clarified by drawing more explicitly on one particular theoretical framework. Cultural geography is referenced, but there is little engagement with specific theories or approaches from this field of study—I think specifically of the work of Yi-Fi Tuan and Edward Relph on the subject, but there is also a host of more recent cultural-geographical work. Among recent studies on American literature and belonging, Aleksandra Bida’s Mapping Home in Contemporary Narratives stands out as one interesting dialogic perspective to Laura Bieger’s readings, especially concerning the contemporary novel. The strength of this book lies in particular in the attentive close readings performed in the individual analysis chapters. Bieger is interested in how narrative is used, rather than in “narrative as a mode of representation” (14), and the readings convincingly show not only how the novels are structured but also the performative uses of such structures. One example is how the reading of Brown’s Edgar Huntly unpacks the implications of the epistolary genre and its dynamics as moving between recovery and rejection. Insightful textual analysis goes hand in hand with comprehensive contextualization, for example when, in the case of The Country of the Pointed Firs, Bieger convincingly shows...

Судьба эпистолярного наследия великоустюгской купеческой семьи Булдаковых конца XVIII-го – первой четверти XIX века

The article presents the history of the epistolary heritage of the Buldakov merchant family. The object of the research is letters of M. M. Buldakov, a representative of the Veliky Ustyug merchants, the leading director of the Russian-American company. These documents contain valuable information on the history of Russian merchants in the last quarter of the 18th – first third of the 19th century and the activities of the Russian-American company. Similar to all sources of epistolary genre, their distinctive feature is that they were created without additional edits and censorship and thereby recorded historical reality at first hand, while retaining the style and language characteristic of the period. The main problem faced by historians is patchy location of M. M. Buldakov’s letters. Currently, only a part of them, stored in the Vologda State Historical-Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve, has been published and introduced into scientific use. The documents scattered across other archives are yet to be identified and examined. The purpose of this study is to determine the true volume of the Buldakovs' epistolary heritage, to understand the reasons for its fragmentation, and to trace the movement of documents from one owner to another. This is the first attempt to restore the path of epistolaries from the pre-revolutionary family archive to modern archives, which determines the scientific novelty of the work. The methodological basis of the research is principles of historicism, consistency, and objectivity. This makes it possible to consolidate the scattered information and facts testifying to the movement of M. M. Buldakov’s papers. The analytical and synthetic method of comparing data provides an opportunity to see the general picture of letters location, while concrete-historical method allows us to describe the facts in historical sequence. We managed to identify three large collections of letters: in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, in the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire of the Historical and Documentary Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in the Vologda State Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve. The results of this study provide a unified picture of the epistolaries location in different archives, which, in turn, provides an opportunity for historians and archivists to continue their work on identifying and introducing into scientific use of documents necessary for further study of the history of Russian merchants and the Russian-American company activities.

Features of the epistolary genre of the XVIII-XIX centuries (based on the material of the letter of the Baranov landowners)

Features of the epistolary genre of the XVIII-XIX centuries (based on the material of the letter of the Baranov landowners)

Бытовая лексика в деловых текстах XVIII в. (на материале писем хана Аюки и их русских переводов)

Introduction. Being an important stratum of the vocabulary of any language that conveys ethnolinguistic specifics of texts, household vocabulary attracts attention of linguists. Khan Ayuka’s letters to Astrakhan Chief Commandant M. I. Chirikov are traditionally referred to as samples of the 18th-century Kalmyk official epistolary genre. The lexical composition of the examined texts is characterized by diversity since the latter contain essentially different types of vocabulary (military terms, titles, anthroponyms, toponyms, etc.). Goals. The article seeks to analyze the functioning of household vocabulary in Khan Ayuka’s letters in comparison to synchronic Russian translations. The 18th-century sources comprise historical/lexicological materials and provide an opportunity to clarify if there is a correspondence between the use of household vocabulary — and genre/stylistic and substantial features traced in source and translated texts. Methods and Materials. The paper investigates Khan Ayuka’s letters dated to 1714 and simultaneous Russian translations stored at the National Archive of Kalmykia. The research primarily employs contextual analysis and the descriptive, comparative methods. The involved texts were transliterated, adapted (from Old to Modern Kalmyk), and translated (literally) into Russian by D. B. Gedeeva. Results. The analysis reveals peculiarities that characterize a particular fragment within early 18th-century Kalmyk and Russian vocabularies. So, the source texts contain not only common Mongolic lexemes but also Russian loanwords. There is a correspondence between the use of household vocabulary and the implied intentions: household vocabulary is used to articulate the request / demand to deliver a certain part of the annual salary which was not limited to money. Thus, acting as enumerative elements, household vocabulary units emerge in a periphery of the vast sociopolitical lexicon. Unlike texts with imperative subgenres, informative letters confirming receipt of the submitted objects are more precise: such messages routinely use words that denote measures of weight or volume paired with cardinal numerals. Besides, there are examples confirming a dependence between a token used — and the described situation and essence of the request. Our comparison of household vocabulary units chosen by translators as equivalents explicitly delineates the ethnolinguistic specifics inherent to Kalmyk official letters and their synchronous Russian translations.

Helder Macedo: O ensaio como gesto amoroso

Este artigo pretende analisar possíveis pontos de interseção semânticos e estruturais entre o género epistolar e o género ensaístico na obra crítica de Helder Macedo. Tomarei como objeto de estudo Camões e outros contemporâneos (2017), sua mais nova coletânea de textos críticos revisitados, a qual inclui quatro ensaios sobre Luís de Camões. Entre eles destaca-se “Camões: o imaginário da malandragem”, em que o ensaísta se debruça sobre cartas cuja autoria é atribuída ao poeta. Para refletir sobre a importância do amor na obra de Helder Macedo – como tema, força motriz e modus operandi –, será fundamental o estudo de semiótica Presenças do outro (2002), de Eric Landowski, no qual há um capítulo dedicado especificamente às cartas de amor, entendidas como um meio pelo qual se procura tornar presente o outro ausente, ou seja, como ato de presentificação do outro.

Writing Upwards: Letters to Robert Menzies, Australian Prime Minister, 1949–1966

Robert Gordon Menzies received approximately 22,000 letters during his record-breaking second term of office as Australia’s Prime Minister (1949–66). This article examines the corpus as an example of “writing upwards,” a distinctive epistolary genre in which the weak wrote to the powerful, to praise them, berate them, abuse them, or perhaps wish them a happy birthday. From this perspective, the Menzies correspondence takes its place alongside the correspondence of other twentieth-century leaders that has already attracted scholarly and popular interest (the Belgian monarchy, Hitler, Mussolini, Mitterrand, Obama). After surveying this literature and establishing the Australian context, I give a brief presentation of the corpus as a whole. I then focus on one fundamental assumption of letter writers engaged in “writing upwards”: they believed their leader or superior was directly accessible and that they could establish a personal connection with him. By cutting through bureaucratic red tape and by using the epistolary hotline to the top, they could solve a problem or at least make their grievance heard. I indicate the difficulties and illusions they experienced, and outline the tactics deployed by Menzies’s secretariat in responding to their letters.

Register and Rhetoric

Abstract Despite 4QMMT having been informally called a “Halakhic Letter” since its first publication, more recently some scholars have expressed skepticism as to the original genre of this text. This article aims to provide empirical and theoretical support for what one might call the orthodox position: that this text was in fact a letter originally. By means of a detailed linguistic comparison between 4QMMT and the Damascus Document, it will be shown that despite many surface similarities between these texts in terms of structure and rhetoric, they present extremely divergent grammars. This in turn raises a fundamental question: how could two texts likely produced by the same community be so different linguistically? It will be argued that the most plausible explanation is that these two texts were written in distinct registers in order to accommodate to distinct literary genres. While the language of MMT can reasonably be called closer to the contemporary vernacular, the Damascus Document seems to be patterned after the language of the higher register of biblical narrative. From here, sociolinguistic research will be employed in an effort to show that the epistolary genre reliably reflects a lower register across languages and cultures, thereby justifying the orthodox position with respect to MMT.