What is an Epistolary?

I woke up this morning to my delight and I see a new challenge - epistolary.

Epstoilaries are one of my favourite forms of novels. I was first introduced to them during my time in sixth-form education. It was a Gothic Literature class and of course, we studied great classics such as Bram Stocker's Dracula (1897) and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). What they have in common as well as their genres are their very form.

In 19th-century literature, the epistolary format was trending. Why? Because it feels personal and adds a sense of realness. An epistolary is a novel that is made up of a collection of newspapers, letters, journal entries and so forth. It feels as if you are on the shoulders of the characters travelling together through the narrative. You as the reader become the fly on the wall that is allowed entry into one's consciousness.

The document format makes it look and feel like fact or truth. Take Dracula for example, you can imagine how Stocker's contemporaries would have been terrified. It's like those creepy paranormal tiktok stories, that you know is false but they certainly look and feel like it is indeed real.

What is also interesting is that the epistolary in the 18th and 19th-century were considered a feminine format of writing from Frances Burney's Evelina (1778) to Mary Wollstonecraft's (Shelley's mother) The Wrongs of a Woman (1798).

According to Gnovis Journal (George Town University), this was because:

'The epistolary form was “the favoured mode of moral instruction for women”. As women began to receive education, they were taught to write letters as a form of exercising their newfound knowledge.

“Newly educated women could easily learn to write letters, and, as epistolary theory became more adapted to worldly culture, women’s letters began to be considered the best models of the genre”.

When the epistolary novel began enjoying a market in the eighteenth century, even more, male writers, including Rousseau and Richardson, began perfecting the technique of imitating female writing...'

However, the epistolary form although popular in this particular era does not originate in the 18th-19th century. In fact, it was first the Romans who introduced the form. Poet Ovid, the Latin name Publius Ovidius Naso used epistles in his work. Epistles are fancy letters dedicated to a person or a group of people.

In ancient Egypt writing epistles was a part of the educational curriculum, and again a very popular form of writing across the continents. There are even epistles in the bible, and thus scholars also refer to the bible as an epistolary of sorts.

Epsitolories are still capturing people's minds today. The most famous epistolary novel is The Anne Frank Diary (1947). This type of epistolary is tragic as it isn't fiction. There is no rule that says epsitolaries need be fiction or non-fiction it can be either or both. So you can see the impact Gothic novels of these forms really hit a nerve in the consciousness of the public. Anne Franks's Diary is still discussed and read to this very day.

The sad truth is that this genre is a hidden gem that is being buried under other new forms of writing. Why? Because no one writes letters to each other anymore, and that's just sad if you keep a journal I envy you and respect you because I simply don't have the patience. And that's what the epistolary requires - patience.

So don't rush and take your time with your challenge entry, good luck! :)

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Stay safe, stay hopeful and stay blessed!

References:

Gnovis Journal: https://gnovisjournal.georgetown.edu/journal/to-my-beloved-bb4n-the-history-of-womans-writing-or-the-epistolary-novel/

Ovid: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ovid-Roman-poet

Epsitle: https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/what-is-an-epistle-what-are-the-epistles-in-the-bible.html

Anne Frank: https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/go-in-depth/two-versions-annes-diary/