Introduction

Abstract

The multifaceted nature of the letter makes it a particularly stimulating object of study, as it crosses several areas. The choice of correspondence as the theme of this issue of Diacrítica is therefore justified. It aims to bring together a set of original works illustrating different approaches which will allow us to show the richness and the potentialities of such a wide and diversified domain, to which increasing attention is being devoted. Without excluding other possibilities, this call for papers is particularly aimed at contributions coming from linguistic studies, literary studies and cultural studies. In the first case, as a linguistic product, the letter allows us to deal with issues related to compositional heterogeneity, textual organization, linguistic strategies of (dis)courtesy or (im)politeness, representation of the "I" and the recipient, the latter's involvement in the text, among others. In the field of literary studies, both the letters from writers, with or without a literary scope, and the literary use of the textual model of the letter or the use of the letter as a narrative element, present fertile paths of approach, ranging from the role of correspondence in the work of a writer, to the connections between epistolography and autobiographical genres, the construction of the image of the "I" as a writer, the ties between a writer's letters and his remaining work, for example. The emergence and metamorphosis of the letter is, of course, a matter for cultural studies. In addition to these broader issues, the letter may also provide clues about the social construction of intimacy, about questions of sociability, gender, relationships between genders, or, given its particular relation to travel, about questions of self and hetero-representation. The combination of different perspectives will contribute to a different way of looking at this form of memory which, whether or not it uses artistic resources, is not limited to the territory of the expression of an "I".