From epistolary practice of "The Theory of Letter" author. Casus Stefania Skwarczyńska–Jerzy Zawieyski

Abstract

Having been published in 1937, The Theory of Letter by Stefania Skwarczyńska (1902–1988) remains a relevant point of reference for modern literary scholars and editors. An insight into her lesser-known, epistolary writings has been provided by the collection of 25 private letters, dated from 1948 to 1968, which had all been exchanged between her and Jerzy Zawieyski (1902–1969). The correspondence of the researcher Skwarczyńska and the aforementioned playwright, prose writer and catholic socio-political activist are discussed under a few aspects. The circumstances of the initial contact’s establishment serve as a starting point for an analysis of the dynamic and biographic relationship between the sender and the recipient’s, as well as it’s interrelation with various other matters. Among them, literary topics (focused on Zawieyski’s works), religious sensitivity and Catholic’s socio-political entanglement in the communist state emerge, as well as research work and private matters of Skwarczyńska. The material and visual form of the inedita and the specifics of their formal composition are described and analysed. The chronological gaps in source materials are reviewed in the context of worldview differences between Catholic intellectuals engaged with PAX Association, such as Skwarczyńska, and those keeping in touch with the “Tygodnik Powszechny” magazine and Deputies’ Group Znak, with Zawieyski being one of them. In the end, the matter of modern reception of The Theory of Letter is presented, along with the research and editorial dilemmas that come along with it.