“Drogi Żuczku!...” On the shades of intimacy in the correspondence between Wierzyński, Grydzewski and Lechoń and the manners of its edition

Abstract

In the interpretation of personal account literature, intimacy is a term which is just as indispensable as semantically ambiguous. Especially in the case of diarist writing, but often also in epistolography, that personal nature implicates finding various shades of intimacy in a text. Perhaps it is more important to simply ask the question about the intimate nature of notes and letters, since it seems that the question about intimacy in personal account literature may serve as an excellent tool which differentiates between the natures of those texts. Its strength would be in subtle differentiation – between private and public, between exhibitionism and confession, which would sensibly reflect the differences between the manners and circles of reception.

Complications involving the use of the term of intimacy in personal account literature are well reflected in the body of correspondence within the Skamander triade on emigration, between Jan Lechoń, Kazimierz Wierzyński and Mieczysław Grydzewski. The attempt to look at intimacy in the discussed collection of letters is based on observations and experience gained in the course of work on digital edition of the collection and research cooperation with the project’s leader in charge of contents.