Epistolary Genre Research Articles

Письмо татарского воина своей супруге

Purpose of the study: to identify sources on everyday life during the Crimean Khanate. An attempt to reconstruct individual episodes of everyday life through the study and reference to materials of the epistolary genre. Research materials: The article analyzes and translates into Russian a letter from Suleiman Effendi to his wife, presumably written during the Polish-Turkish War (1632–1634). This letter was published in 1864 in the collection of V. Velyaminov-Zernov “Materials for the history of the Crimean Khanate”, but until today it remained completely unexplored. Results and scientific novelty: The topic of everyday life during the Crimean Khanate period remains unstudied and unconsidered. In view of this circumstance, the relevance of the problem raised in the study lies in identifying and considering sources containing descriptions of individual aspects of everyday life. The work examines a letter of a private nature, which reveals several aspects from the past: the private life and relationships of people in the family, the ethics of mental behavior in society, the tactics and techniques used by the warring parties during military campaigns, the names of historical figures, the language of that time. Based on the research and identification of sources of the epistolary genre, the author comes to the conclusion that today the letters of a private nature from the period of the Crimean Khanate are very rare. An analysis of the contents of the letter suggests that there was correspondence between Suleiman Effendi and his wife, and this letter is Suleiman Effendi’s response to a letter sent earlier by his wife. It also turns out that letters from military campaigns were probably delivered by special mounted messengers.

“THE MYSTERIOUS AUTHOR” FROM SPASSKY: A LETTER FROM I. S. TURGENEV TO P. V. ANNENKOV DATED OCTOBER 14, 1853

In the article, the letter of I. S. Turgenev to P. V. Annenkov dated October 14, 1853, which structurally comprises a “physiological essay” about a “little man” and an Easter poem allegedly written by this “little man,” and in fact — by a “mysterious author,” is analyzed. The letter is considered as a letter-work that has already overcome the narrow framework of the epistolary genre during the writer’s life and has become a discussed text. In Turgenev studies, however, the question of the biographical author of the Easter poem remains the main issue in examining the letter: today, in the reader’s space, the poem de facto functions as a work of both Turgenev and Lermontov. The “prosaic” part of the letter about the painter-poet is considered by researchers to be preparatory material for a subsequent work. Meanwhile, the letter is a “cryptographic text,” and as a whole conceals a hidden “Pushkin code,” which is “read” thanks to numerous hints contained both in the letter itself, in its “prosaic” and poetic parts, and in the friendly correspondence between Turgenev and Annenkov. A comparative analysis of the two texts of the Easter poem prepared by the Turgenev academic group, one of which is in a letter dated October 14, 1853, and the other, in the Dubia section, revealed numerous discrepancies in these texts, as well as their significant deviation from the original text published in the Literary Gazette in 1840. In academic texts, all sacred words — the Glory of God, the Son of God — are graphically eliminated. Such eradication of religious and aesthetic feeling, “concealed” in the graphic “decapitation” of the names of Christ, again actualizes the issue of the need to publish the creative heritage of Russian classics in an authentic form.

Особенности функционирования периферийных пунктуационных знаков в эпистолярных текстах малограмотных авторов

The research aims to identify the established norm of using peripheral punctuation marks in epistolary texts and to evaluate the functioning of peripheral punctuation in the letters by semiliterate authors relative to this norm. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the first-ever examination of the functions of peripheral punctuation marks in the context of the private official letters written by semiliterate authors. Additionally, the notion of a fixed function was introduced for the first time as a tool necessary for investigating whether peripheral punctuation marks are used in accordance with the norm established within a specific textual genre. The research findings showed that the use of peripheral punctuation in the letters by semiliterate authors may deviate from the generally accepted punctuation norm in the epistolary genre. It was found that norm violations primarily occur in the use of spatial-graphic signs, such as paragraph breaks, text column changes, increased line spacing and spacing between words. As a result of the study on the functioning of peripheral marks in the letters by semiliterate individuals, the following features of peripheral punctuation were also identified: the interchangeability and universalization of punctuation marks, as well as the standardization of their functions.

The Jargon of «AUE» Criminal Organization (from the Practice of Forensic Linguistic Examinations)

The criminal plans disclosure and the illegal activities suppression, the implementation of forensic linguistic examinations is complicated by the presence of a special secret language in the criminal world. In this regard, it is necessary to study and systematize such jargon, create vocabularies. The extremist organization «Prisoner Criminal Unity» (AUE), the study of the jargon of which is undertaken in this article is especially dangerous and the most closed. The article is devoted to the consideration of some features of the language characteristic for AUE representatives concerning naming, abbreviation, word formation, obligatory cliched expressions at meetings and in the epistolary genre. It is established that the speech of the AUE representatives reflects their mental values, among which they themselves call the thieves’ brotherhood, the thieves’ family and strict adherence to its principles. The language of this extremist organization is difficult to learn largely due to the fact that it lacks a common governing body, a leader, and each place of detention has its own leader, its own language rules and features. These linguistic units are either not recorded in the criminal jargon dictionaries, or have territorial specifics. A short dictionary of basic language units used by representatives of AUE in places of detention of the Southern Federal District of the Russian Federation is proposed.

Виды информации в текстах эпистолярного жанра и способы их передачи в переводе

The article is devoted to the issue of information type congruence in the epistolary texts translation. The aim of this research is to characterize information types contained in the text of epistolary genre, explain the language mechanism of maintaining the congruence of the information types proportion between the source text and the translation while preserving the dominant type. The book "Chesterfield's Letters to His Son" (1774) and its translation into Russian (1971) served as the empirical material. The analysis was conducted on the basis of contexts containing verbs of speech production. The research identifies the presence of emotional, cognitive, operative and aesthetic information, as well as the ways of their linguistic expression in the source text. Ways of conveying information types of the source text in translation are characterized. The analysis reveals that the presence of specific information types in an epistolary work, alongside the choice of linguistic means for their expression, is determined by the communicative goal of the utterance – to give the author's opinion and considerably influence the recipient's views. The analysis shows that, in correspondence with such goal, emotional information is dominant in the text of epistolary genre under study. The preservation of the original information types in translation enables a creation of a secondary text that is equivalent to the source text and has a comparable value in the target linguoculture.

THE USE OF ANTHROPONYMIСALVOCATIVES IN THE EPISTOLARY STYLE OF MUKHTAR AUEZOV

Despite the fact that in Kazakh linguistics there are many studies of the language of individual poets and writers, scientific studies of the epistolary language of individual writers in correspondence are currently developing at a certain pace. The epistolary prose of the writer, collected in the fiftieth volume of the fifty-volume complete collection of works by M. Auezov, is an integral part of our national culture, his letters, written as a writer-scientist, as a family member, as an ordinary person, reveal the creative face of a person, the historical events of his period life and people of those times, gives an idea of his environment. Using anthroponomy in personal correspondence, language learners will get acquainted with the use of anthroponomy - vocatives, learn the features of their use in different contexts, identify the epistolary genre and M. Auezov's personal signature in this genre. The purpose of the article is to find out the specifics of anthroponomical vocatives in the epistolary discourse of M. Auezov, to determine the communicative-functional and pragmatic function of these linguistic means in his idiostyle. To do this, all proper names in the letters of M. Auezov were collected and grouped according to their lexical and grammatical features, by means of content analysis, common variants of the formation of vocatives and the frequency of their use were clarified, and the peculiarity of their pragmatic use was determined.

Familial Relations of Russian Naval Officer N.V. Kopytov: based on Epistolary Sources of 1866-1897

The author in their work analyzes familial relations, gender roles and gender equality issues based on Vice Admiral N.V. Kopytov’s letters to his wife, letters currently being stored in his personal fund stored at the Russian State Archive of Navy. The novelty of the scientific usefulness of the letters is determined by their use as a source base for further historical analysis. The introduction of N.V. Kopytov’s personal letters into scientific use for the first time has allowed the authors and further researchers to obtain information to analyze a wide range of issues: including interpersonal communications, gender relations, everyday life, and professional activities. In addition, this research has allowed the analysis of the influence of peculiarities of mentality, class affiliation, financial situation on the character and main priorities of relationships in N.V. Kopytov’s family. Recent research interest in personal letters as historical sources of private origin and the epistolary genre is currently associated with the ability to identify common and specific features of intra-family communications of people of a certain social stratum and social status, in this particular case, the noble family of the Vice-Admiral of Navy. The study of the letters allows us to conclude that the Kopytov family was not typical of Russian society and was more of an equal partnership, despite the prevailing gender inequality enshrined in the legislation and in the mentality of the population of time. The authors have examined the causes of family relations which were considered progressive for the period under consideration, based on the equal division of gender roles and the position of spouses in joint decision-making.

Polemical criticism of the “catholic” and non-canonical early Christian Epistles

The article deals with the “Catholic Epistles” from the New Testament and other texts written by Christian authors in the epistolary genre supposedly before the year 130 CE from the point of view of the polemical criticism, its main principles have been discussed in the previous article of this series. The aim is to define the theses which the early Christian authors argued with and to reconstruct as much as possible the currents within the early Christianity which left no texts of their own. In addition, it discusses the questions of the break between Christianity and Judaism.

GENRE AND STYLISTIC FEATURES OF N. SAURANBAYEV’S EPISTOLARY

The article is devoted to the study of genre and stylistic features of epistolary of Kazakhstan scientists. Epistolary heritage is an important component of the tradition of science and culture of any country. Its research allows to understand more deeply the development and features of this genre in the context of academic environment of Kazakhstan. The purpose of this study is to analyze the epistolary works of Kazakhstani scientists. The main directions of the work are classification of epistolary texts, identification of stylistic features of modern epistolary genre. The main idea of the research is to reveal the role of epistolary genre in scientific communication and to identify its contribution to the development of scientific discourse in Kazakhstan. The scientific significance of this work is to expand the existing knowledge about the genre and stylistic features of scientists' epistolary in the conditions of Kazakhstan's bilingualism. The study allows reconstructing the scientific picture of the biography of Kazakh scientists, revealing the typical features inherent in the epistolary genre in the academic context, which contributes to a better understanding of the linguistic situation in Kazakhstan in the context of two eras: Soviet and modern. The study was based on the analysis of epistolary works of Kazakh scientists, including scientific articles, letters, electronic correspondence from personal archives, as well as archives of academic institutions, in particular, A. Baitursynov Institute of Linguistics.

B. Ber and A. Sheller-Mikhailov: The history of a creative dialogue

The article is devoted to the history of a creative dialogue between the poet and translator B. Ber and his literary patron A. Sheller-Mikhailov. The correspondence between the two writers, which began in 1895, continued until 1900 when the latter died. The surviving part of the epistolary genre (letters from A. Sheller-Mikhailov to B. Ber) contains about twenty documents; B. Ber’s response letters have not been found yet. Based on the analysis of their correspondence, the history of their acquaintance, the literary ties and cooperation between the two artists of the realistic and pre-modernist trends is restored, the main motives of their correspondence are revealed, which, on the one hand, is the evidence of the acquaintance and communication of representatives of different literary generations; on the other hand, it is a curious epistolary text that actualizes such meanings as “old” and “young”, “capital” and “province”, “craft” and “inspiration”. Particular attention is paid to literary masks and game strategies used by the addressee and the sender of the letters, framing the epistolary dialogue as an aesthetic phenomenon and an artistic act. The study of the creative dialogue between B. Ber and A. Sheller-Mikhailov is interesting as it enables to characterize each of the participants in the correspondence and to understand the nature of pre-modernist aesthetics, which was formed in the conditions of simultaneous assimilation and rejection of classical traditions.

“The Time of My Ideas is Ahead”: The Significance of V.I. Vernadsky’s Axiological Principles for the Methodological Searches of Modern Historical Studies.

The article highlights the importance of the following problems: man and the universe, progress and regress, absolute and eternal, reversibility and irreversibility of time, values and meanings, thus turning the reader to V.I. Vernadsky’s historical and philosophical reflections. These categories are an integral part of the methodological apparatus of historical research. Appealing to them, the historian realizes certain principles of historical research. For example, the application of the principle of historicism inevitably implies the involvement of the researcher in the social and cultural context of the studied epoch, which in turn entails a number of problems such as objectivity and subjectivity, spatial and temporal analysis, historical memory, continuity of history, “catching up” and “advancing” historical development, Eurocentrism and so on. Therefore, V.I. Vernadsky’s approaches concerning, first of all, the value-sense understanding of history, the role of man in the surrounding reality, and the prospects for the development of science are not only important for the modern researcher, but can be widely implemented in the methodological practice of modern historical science. The study is based on the sources of epistolary genre enabling to define V.I. Vernadsky’s life and research position, as well as the works of the scientist revealing the process of his scientific search and methodological reflections, including those related to the substantiation of the moral ideal.

Епістолярний роман в класиці літератури: прецедент «Португальських листів» Ґієраґа та «Листів перуанки» Ф. де Ґрафіньї

The dynamics of the text’s stay in the circle of literary classics becomes clear only over time: the experience of epistolary novels of the Enlightenment is very indicative of many aspects of literary production. “Portuguese Letters” by Guilleragues (second half of the XVIIth century) and “Letters from a Peruvian” by F. de Graffigny (middle of the XVIIIth century) offer material for understanding the mechanisms of the novel’s timeless success. These texts have experienced powerful recognition, oblivion, and rediscovery throughout history. From the history of creation, genre canon, literary process to the system of motives, rhetoric, figures, and metaphors – everything in these works is a kaleidoscope of the widest readership. The extra-literary factors and intra-textual mechanisms of the two novels by Guilleragues and F. de Graffigny together shed light on the secret of the power of the work in the context of the classics of literature. At the same time, they encourage us to check the essence of such categories as author’s mystification, fictionality, mimeticity in the communication arch of an artistic work. The article reveals these questions, which allows us to introduce the “Portuguese Letters” of Guilleragues and the “Letters from a Peruvian” by F. de Graffigny into the circle of current issues of modern literary studies to fill the gap in Ukrainian literary studies around the theme of the formation, flowering, and power of the epistolary genre in the history of French literature.

Polemical criticism of the “catholic” and non-canonical early Christian Epistles

The article deals with the “Catholic Epistles” from the New Testament and other texts written by Christian authors in the epistolary genre supposedly before the year 130 CE from the point of view of the polemical criticism, its main principles have been discussed in the previous article of this series. The aim is to define the theses which the early Christian authors argued with and to reconstruct as much as possible the currents within the early Christianity which left no texts of their own. In addition, it discusses the questions of the break between Christianity and Judaism.

Epistolary Short Story by M.A. Kuzmina 1907: Demonological Narrative, Libertine Transgression, or Stylization of Adventures in Spirit of Henri de Regnier

The epistolary short story by M.A. Kuzmin 1907 “From the letters of the maiden Clara Valmont to Rosalia Tutel Mayer”. The “layers” of genres and traditions in the text of the novel are studied in order to establish the compatibility of the epistolary genre with narrative strategies of stylization and parody. It turns out that under the narration about the connection of a supernatural being with a person lies the usual story of manipulation and deception of a young ingenuous girl. Nevertheless, the epistolary form helps to more accurately construct the female image. It is noted that the comic effect arises as a result of doubts that appear about the version of events set forth in the letters of the heroine. It is shown that additional attention to poetic autoquotation in the epistolary short story by M.A. Kuzmin opens up the possibility of clarifying the source, which could be chosen for stylization and parody. In addition, it becomes clear that, contrary to the genre epistolary canon, which brings to the fore the inner world of the characters, the novel M.A. Kuzmin contains elements of the adventure novel genre. It is also suggested that the stylization strategy of M.A. Kuzmin can be compared with the imitative narrative of A. de Regnier, which was admired by Russian symbolists.

A.P. Chekhov A life in letters – Correspondence (1891 – 1904)

"A. P. Cehov A life in letters - Correspondence (1891 - 1904)" (volume II), neat edition, selection, translation from Russian and notes by Sorina Bălănescu, is not just a book - it represents a gesture of intellectual nobility by Mrs. Sorina Bălănescu, theater critic, literary historian, university professor who left her ma4rk on many generations of students of UAIC (where she taught Russian language and literature for 42 years) and UNAGE Iași, member of the founding team of the Doctoral School of theater, translator of esteemed professional status to these we will add a membership that she proudly declares: member of the "Dostoevsky Society of Academic Studies" - an international, elitist club with only (about) 120 members. In a world of truncated, short and (mostly) formal messages; the epistolary genre reminds us of the need for confession, the sharing of joy and sadness, and (especially) of the word needing meaning and emotion. 74 themes, 317 texts - 317 fragments of life, which we can understand better thanks to the translator's care to give us her work and spirit."

A Republic of the Imagination: In Conversation with Azar Nafisi

A Republic of the ImaginationIn Conversation with Azar Nafisi Daniel Simon (bio) and Azar Nafisi (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 31] Click for larger view View full resolution PHOTO BY YOUSEF AL-ABDULLAH Fiction, storytelling, is the bearer, the carrier of empathy. Click for larger view View full resolution With her latest book of essays, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times (2022), Iranian American writer Azar Nafisi offers a "resistance reading list" that the Washington Post hails as offering "a new canon for the tyrannies of the present and the dystopian possibilities of the future." Over Zoom, we discussed the power of storytelling embodied by Scheherazade and Alice in Wonderland; the intergenerational threads that connect readers; and the role of writers and readers in preserving memory and defending truth. [End Page 32] Daniel Simon: We're talking today about your newest book, Read Dangerously, which I really love—thank you so much for writing it. I think it's a perfect fit for the theme of our May issue, which is called "The Future of the Book." And it's an opportune moment to speak with you about your own passion for reading, writing, and books and how they've played such a large part in your life. In the epistolary genre consisting of letters to "Baba," your late father, you write beautifully in Read Dangerously about the intergenerational thread that connects teachers and readers, such as your parents, Nezhat and Ahmad, to your own children and now your grandchildren; Professor James Yoch here at the University of Oklahoma and your student Razieh in Tehran; even your own reading of writers from Plato to James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Margaret Atwood during the 1970s and then again more recently as you are composing these letters. If a student in Norman or Tehran were to ask you what it means to read dangerously in 2023, what would you tell them? Azar Nafisi: Well, this book is partly a response to the trend I had noticed, especially in the US, where we use books as comfort food. We read them not in order to be disturbed or find something new, but we read them in order for them to confirm what we already know, at times to confirm our prejudices: "Why don't they speak what I want them to?" So, there's no challenge—we're uncomfortable with challenge. We want to eliminate rather than create an exchange. And so, for me, reading dangerously means that we take that risk to read in order to be disturbed. As James Baldwin says, artists are here to disturb the peace. Writers are not here to warm the cockles of your heart. For me, the best example of a good reader or a reader who takes risks is Alice in Wonderland. Out of millions of little girls, there's this one little girl who is bored with the routine of her life, and she's after something different. What makes Alice so exceptional is the fact that she has what Nabokov calls the third eye of the imagination. She sees not just reality in terms of appearances, but she also sees beyond reality, the magic of reality. And she sees not only a white rabbit but a white rabbit who talks and wears a waistcoat and a watch. She runs after that white rabbit, not saying, like some of our readers, that this is not how rabbits act. She risks going into the world of the white rabbit. And when she jumps into that hole, she doesn't say, Am I going to survive this? What's going to happen to me next? And her reward, of course, is the world—everything, every creature in that world, has a sign of being in her real life, but she's now seeing them in a new light. Her vision of reality is changing as she goes from one person to another. The last thing that I want to say about Alice, which I think is really important, is that like all good stories, it challenges and questions, not just the world outside but the reader...

El discurso fúnebre de Quevedo a la muerte del rey Gustavo Adolfo de Suecia: nuevos datos y manuscritos

Quevedo wrote a short prose funeral speech dedicated to the Swedish monarch, who died in Lützen in 1632. The text is considered an incomplete letter with an uncertain addressee since Astrana included it in his Epistolary. The purpose of this article is to offer a critical edition of the aforementioned writing, based on five manuscripts, two of them unknown until now and located in a Portuguese archive. The study of all textual sources allows to correct some errors in the text that we know, to rule out that it is a mere fragment, as well as to qualify its dubious ascription to the epistolary genre. As a simple hypothesis in need of new inquiries, a possible relationship with Lope de Vega's letter to the same subject is raised.

Daughter, mother, widow: The making of the identities of Isabella d'Aragona

AbstractThis article examines performances of identity (as daughter, mother and widow) by Isabella d'Aragona (1470–1524) in three of her letters. Isabella's construction of self, drew on her status as a dynast of the House of Aragon and aimed at securing her future and promote the interests of her children. The analysis of the language of letters, their context and their outcomes will contribute to the understanding of the use of letter‐writing as an effective rhetorical device, thus demonstrating that the epistolary genre was used by women to engage their male recipients in a persuasive negotiation.

Artistic representation of sexuality and identity in Ocean Vuong’s queer novel “On Earth We’re Briefly Glorious”

The relevance of the study is determined by the need for a literary interpretation of the unique experience of discriminated groups (sexual and ethnic minorities) in Asian-American queer literature. The subject of the study is the representation of a traumatic experience that affects the shaping of various types of sexuality and identity. The purpose of the research is to study the relationship between the artistic representation of the experience of sexuality and the shaping of identity in queer prose based on the material of Vuong’s novel “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”. The goal was achieved by using the methodology of gender and queer studies, the basics of postcolonial studies and cross-culturalism. As a result of the research, it was found that queer prose is a term that arose from literary discourse and practices of queer authors, and contains certain artistic features; the manifestations of sexuality and identity as character-forming factors of the main characters of Vuong’s novel are characterized. The peculiarities of the self-identification of the main character Little Dog, a Vietnamese-American teenager, and the process of becoming part of the queer community are outlined. The epistolary genre and autobiographical nature of Vuong’s text emphasize the close relationship between sexual experience and the process of the protagonist’s identity formation. The analysis of certain excerpts of the novel allows to understand the challenges and difficulties in the portrayal of sexuality and identity of the main character due to discrimination, both by family and society. Bullying, insults, and non-acceptance affect the formation of Little Dog as a person but do not hinder his self-discovery, well-being and gaining confidence in adulthood (in the novel finale). Considering the result, the explored manifestations of sexuality and identity in Asian-American queer prose will contribute to the spreading of concepts of tolerance and diversity; to a more thorough study of artistic texts related to the literature of ethnic and sexual minorities, which have been considered marginalized for a long time.

La Roche and Goethe: Gender, Genre, and Influence

Sophie von La Roche exemplifies the gendered exclusion of eighteenth-century female authors from the German literary canon. Her first novel, Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim (1771), has yet to be fully recognized for its generic innovations in the German epistolary genre and for its direct influence on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werther (1774). A close side-by-side reading of both novels reveals several similarities that set the German epistolary novel apart from the English and French examples. By taking into account the mutual mentorship and collaboration between La Roche and Goethe in the years leading up to the publication of Werther, La Roche's role in the development of the genre becomes evident. The value of recentering La Roche's Sternheim in this manner lies in the ability to better identify the mechanisms that perpetuate the gendered exclusion of authors like La Roche from the German literary tradition, making visible a path to a more inclusive literary canon.