Epistolarny news zesłańczy (krąg Onufrego Pietraszkiewicza i Adolfa Januszkiewicza, Syberia Zachodnia)

Abstract

The author attempts to discover signs of poetics of news in the exile letters written in the first half of the 19th century. The paper discusses two overlapping correspondence circles related to outstanding exiles, active organizers of exile communities, Onufry Pietraszkiewicz and Adolf Januszkiewicz (both were Mickiewicz’s close friends). The author reveals a different aesthetic strategy (Pietraszkiewicz preferred a utilitarian letter, while Januszkiewicz favoured romantic epistolography); moreover he describes a number of common elements that from the point of view of circulation of information in exile were the most significant, i.e. news about important changes in the exile existence, such as illnesses, successes or failures in gainful employments and most importantly information on the efforts concerning release from the exile; in addition he highlights consequent elimination of dissident political contents from the epistolary discourse. Furthermore, the author draws attention to the reportage elements, often sensational, which appeared especially in letters addressed to the national recipient and were related mainly to the descriptions of exotic places and forms of existence of Siberian indigenous peoples.