A letter serves memory. A documentary aspect of the correspondence between Wisława Szymborska and Kornel Filipowicz

Anna Wojciechowska

Uniwersytet Zielonogórski
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1182-625X

Abstract

The paper focuses on the documentary aspect of a letter as a speech genre. The corpus comprises the letters exchanged between Wisława Szymborska and Kornel Filipowicz, written between 1966 and 1985. The study aims toanalyse how the participants of the epistolary dialogue present historic and social issues, and to what extent a private letter may serve memory. The analysis proves that the topics in the texts revolve around every day and ordinary issues – important only for the correspondents. Historical facts and social affairs are reported selectively, always from the sender’s point of view, and in relation to the addressee and the circumstances. They are often expressed in a disguised form (by means of allusion, understatement, joke, irony) which is determined by two factors: the fear of censorship and the correspondents’ literary abilities and their similar personality traits. The data reveals that a letter – considered as one’s account of events and a secondary mnemonic genre – may serve memory onlyin some ways but not completely because it “remembers” the past in a relative and limited way.

Keywords:

Wisława Szymborska, Kornel Filipowicz, letter, document, memory

Szymborska W., Filipowicz K., 2016, Najlepiej w życiu ma twój kot. Listy, Kraków.
  Google Scholar

Bikont A., Szczęsna J., 2012, Pamiątkowe rupiecie. Biografia Wisławy Szymborskiej, Kraków.
  Google Scholar

Chlebda W., 2012, Pamięć ujęzykowiona. – Tradycja dla współczesności, t. 6: Pamięć jako kategoria rzeczywistości kulturowej, red. J. Adamowski, M. Wójcicka, Lublin, s. 109–119.
  Google Scholar

Chlebda W., 2018, Pamięć a język. Zarys relacji. – Pamięć w ujęciu lingwistycznym. Zagadnienia teoretyczne i metodyczne, red. W. Czachur, Warszawa, s. 56–67.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323530077.pp.56-68   Google Scholar

Czachur W., 2016, Dlaczego pamięć społeczna może być obiektem badań lingwistycznych? – Karły na ramionach olbrzymów? Kultura niemieckiego obszaru językowego w dialogu z tradycją, t. 2., red. J. Godlewicz-Adamiec, P. Kociumbas, E. Michta, Warszawa, s. 252–260.
  Google Scholar

Kałkowska A., 1982, Struktura składniowa listu, Wrocław. Kita M., 2013, Polski dyskurs prywatności, „Postscriptum Polonistyczne”, nr 1 (11), s. 93–103.
  Google Scholar

Popiel M., 2004, List artysty jako gatunek narracji epistolograficznej. O listach Stanisława Wyspiańskiego, „Teksty Drugie”, nr 4, s. 115–124.
  Google Scholar

Roszkowski W., 2003, Historia Polski 1914–2001, Warszawa.
  Google Scholar

Rybicka E., 2004, Antropologiczne i komunikacyjne aspekty dyskursu epistolograficznego, „Teksty Drugie”, nr 4, s. 40–55.
  Google Scholar

Skwarczyńska S., 1975, Wokół teorii listu (Paradoksy). – Pomiędzy historią a teorią literatury, red. S. Skwarczyńska, Warszawa, s. 178–186.
  Google Scholar

Skwarczyńska S., 2006, Teoria listu, na podstawie lwowskiego pierwodruku oprac. E. Feliksiak i M. Leś, Białystok.
  Google Scholar

Wójcicka M., 2017, Styl jako praktyka i forma pamięci zbiorowej, „Półrocznik Językoznawczy Tertium. Tertium Linguistic Journal”, nr 2 (1), s. 29–42.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7592/Tertium2017.2.1.Wojcicka   Google Scholar

Wójcicka M., 2018, Język pamięci zbiorowej (w kontekście kultury oralności, piśmienności i elektralności). Prolegomena. – Pamięć w ujęciu lingwistycznym. Zagadnienia teoretyczne i metodyczne, red. W. Czachur, Warszawa, s. 68–93.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323530077.pp.68-93   Google Scholar

http://www.szymborska.org.pl/kalendarium.html (dostęp: 14.11.2018)
  Google Scholar

https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/ (dostęp: 10.11.2018)
  Google Scholar

https://pl.wikipedia.org (dostęp: 10.11.2018)
  Google Scholar

https://sjp.pwn.pl (dostęp: 7.11.2018)
  Google Scholar

www.wsjp.pl (dostęp: 7.11.2018)
  Google Scholar


Published
2019-12-26

Cited by

Wojciechowska, A. (2019). A letter serves memory. A documentary aspect of the correspondence between Wisława Szymborska and Kornel Filipowicz. Stylistyka, 28, 193–212. https://doi.org/10.25167/Stylistyka28.2019.13

Authors

Anna Wojciechowska 
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1182-625X

Statistics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.


License

1. Copyrights to published works are held by the University of Opole (to the collective work) and the Authors (to individual parts of the collective work that have an independent meaning).

2. Only previously undistributed works can be published in the scientific journal "Stylistics".

3. The University of Opole does not restrict the possibility of the author's further dissemination of his work on condition that the scientific journal "Stylistics" is indicated as the original place of publication and the consent of the University Publishing House.

4. Consent to the publication of the work in the scientific journal "Stylistics" is tantamount to granting the author a non-exclusive license to the University of Opole, including the right to use the work without territorial restrictions and time limits in the following fields of exploitation:

a) within the scope of recording and multiplication of the work - production of any number of copies of the work in whole or in part using a specified technique, including printing, reprography, magnetic recording and digital technique, introduction of the work into computer memory and computer networks,

b) within the scope of circulation of the original or copies on which the work has been recorded - circulation, lending or hiring of the original or copies,

c) within the scope of dissemination of the work in a manner other than specified in item 2 - making the work or its abstract available on the Internet by enabling the recipients to access the work on-line or enabling them to download the work to their own device that makes it possible to read it, placing the work in electronic databases that disseminate scientific works, including in particular the CEEOL database (Central and Eastern Online Libray) and the abstract in English in the CEJSH database (The Central Europaen Journal of Social Scienes and Humanites).

d) within the scope of creating and distributing dependent works created using the work - using them in the fields of exploitation specified in points 1-3.

5. The author is not entitled to compensation for granting the license to the work.

6. The author agrees that the University may grant further permission to use the work (sublicense) in the fields of exploitation specified in par. 2 paragraph 4.

7. The author agrees that, in connection with the distribution of the work, his or her personal information, that is, name, affiliation, and e-mail address, may be made public.