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The Epistolary Gift, the Editorial Third-Party, Counter-Epistolaria: Rethinking the Epistolarium

2011; Routledge; Volume: 8; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14484528.2011.559732

1751-2964

Liz Stanley,

Narrative Theory and Analysis

Abstract Rather than absence and loss as the basis of epistolarity, such exchanges mainly come about because of the ongoing social and relational bonds of relationship and connection between the writer/signatory and the addressee: in this context letters can be helpfully thought about around 'the system of the epistolary gift'. This argument is developed around examples, particularly the letters of South African feminist writer and social theorist Olive Schreiner (1855–1920). The editorial 'third-party' role in transcribing and transmuting manuscript or typescript letters into a (digital or paper) published form in 'an edition' of the letters of X or Y, is related to the epistolary gift in interesting and ontologically complex ways. These are explored generally as well as concerning the Schreiner letters. Counter-epistolaria, as forms of epistolarity that trouble one or more aspects of definitional characteristics of letters, are explored in relation to their gift dimensions. Examples of three such forms, open letters, draft letters and last letters, are explored, and their 'counter' dimensions used to interrogate some 'ordinary letters' by Schreiner, thereby pointing out that these, too, routinely trouble and 'counter', but do not overturn definitional aspects of the letter. Taking recognition of the epistolary gift, the editorial third-party, counter-epistolaria and 'ordinary letters' adds significantly to theorisation of the epistolarium in ways explored in the conclusion. Keywords: lettersepistolariumgifteditorshipcounter-epistolaria Acknowledgements The Olive Schreiner Letters Project is funded by the UK's ESRC (RES-062-23-1286); I am pleased to acknowledge the ESRC's support. My thanks to Project colleagues Helen Dampier, Donna Hetherington, Sarah Poustie and Andrea Salter. My thanks also for referee comments on an earlier version of this paper. Notes 1. Work on letters and epistolarity that has particularly influenced thinking in this paper includes Altman, Barton Barton, David and Hall, Nigel. 1999. Letter Writing as a Social Practice, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamin Publishing Company. [Google Scholar] & Hall, Decker Decker, William Merrill. 1998. Epistolary Practices: Letter Writing in America Before Telecommunications, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. [Google Scholar], Derrida Derrida, Jacques. 1996. By force of mourning. Critical Inquiry, 22: 171–92. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] Postcard, Goldsmith Goldsmith , Elizabeth . Writing the Female Voice: Essays on Epistolary Literature . Boston : Northeastern University Press , 1989 . [Google Scholar], Jolly, Montefiore Montefiore , Jan , and Nicky Hallett . Lives and Letters . Spec. issue of Journal of European Studies. 32, 2 and 3 2002 . [Google Scholar] & Hallett, Thomas & Znaniecki. 2. The Olive Schreiner Letters Project is researching and analysing, and will also involve publishing in full, in electronic transcriptions, the complete Schreiner letters. For details of the research team, analytical concerns, methodological approach and publications, see www.oliveschreinerletters.ed.ac.uk 3. For instance, Cohen's Selected Lewis Carroll letters provides both photographs and transcripts of the 'same' part of letters, but with the transcriptions actually different, by tidying punctuation, replacing ampersands and generally 'correcting' the letter. 4. See for example the online letters of the Carlyles (http://carlyleletters.dukejournals.org/); John Adams (http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/); and Vincent van Gogh (http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/) (all accessed 10 November 2010). 5. This is very much a collective 'I-the-editor' and 'me', for it involves my project colleagues Helen Dampier and Andrea Salter doing the same too. 6. Providing jpegs do not remove but rather defer confrontation of the issues involved. 7. For a transcription and jpegs, see http://www.nls.uk/mqs/trans1.html (accessed 1 October 2009).