Interpoetics of correspondence: figures for constructing presence, fictionalization, and disruptions of presence technologies

A b s t r a c t

The paper discusses the benefits of conceptualizing correspondence as an interpoetic medium. It presents an analysis of textual and visual ways of constructing the presence of the addressee and the sender in letters, and the disruption of constructing this presence caused by interrupting the writing process by a phone call. The paper indicates the fictionalizing role of the addressee and the sender as the condition for creating the “virtual reality” of a letter. It presents basic figures and topoi for acknowledging the presence in correspondence based on the collections of correspondence between: Wisława Szymborska and Kornel Filipowicz, Maria Pawlikowka-Jasnorzewska and Stefan Jasnorzewski, Stanisław Barańczak and Lech Dymarski, and Zofia and Kazimierz Moczarscy.