The research project “Spanish Letters. From Spectator Press to Epistolary Novel” funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF: PAT 3363224) investigates the ‘letter form’ or ‘epistolary mode’, which was a favored choice by 18th and 19th century European authors to educate their readers. The literary-journalistic genre of the Spectator press made broad use of fictitious readers’ letters. Additionally to disseminating enlightened thoughts and concepts, it also contributed to familiarize authors and readers with the epistolary mode. It was repeatedly suggested that at the end of the century, when the Spectator press gradually disappeared, it transformed into other literary formats and, thus, prepared the emergence of the epistolary novel.

The “Spanish Letters” project aims at (1) inventorizing the Spanish epistolary novel between 1789 and 1840 and sharing this information in an open access database; (2) analyzing the formal-aesthetic contribution of the letter form in the Spectator press to the epistolary novel in Spain; and (3) describing how specific Enlightenment thoughts and concepts were (co-)constructed, preserved, and disseminated in and through the Spanish letters.

For further details see the “Spanish Letters” Homepage: www.tugraz.at/projekte/spanish-letters

Grant-DOI: 10.55776/PAT3363224