1st International Egodocumental Network Conference
Vilnius University, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, the University of Lodz, and the Egodocumental Research Group (https://egodocuments.umk.pl) organise an international conference focusing on research, development, and changing perceptions of egodocuments in the twenty-first century. The conference aims to bring together scholars from different disciplines to share their insights and to encourage interdisciplinary studies of egodocuments.
The conference will also be the first meeting of the International Egodocumental Network established in December 2023 by the Egodocumental Research Group (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the University of Lodz) to unite scholars from different disciplines working on egodocuments. It provides a platform for discussion, collaboration, and exchange of information between the participants, as well as online research seminars organized twice a year. In this dimension, our conference continues two editions of the Scientific Symposium "Egodocuments, Life-Writing and Autobiographical Texts..." organized at NCU in Toruń in 2022 and 2024.
Keynote speakers
Dr. Nataliia Voloshkova
Kazimierz Wielki University and Oxford Brookes University
Prof. Leona Toker
Hebrew University and Shalem Academic College
Prof. François-Joseph Ruggiu
Sorbonne Université, CNRS and Oxford University
Stanisław Roszak
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Between Official Statement and Personal Confession. Correspondence of the Załuski Family in the 18th Century
In the early modern era, the letter was the primary form of social contact. The two brothers Andrzej Stanisław, Chancellor of the Crown, and Józef Andrzej, Referendary of the Crown, exchanged correspondence for over 30 years. Both belonged not only to the political elite, but also to the intellectual elite, which is why their letters are dominated by public, political matters. Private statements, personal confessions appear in letters to other family members – three sisters and two brothers. Emotions and concern appear in relation to brother Jacob. He was the only one of the brothers who had not made a clerical career, and so he was associated with hopes for a secular career, for marriage and, above all, for the extension of the Załuski family. In the correspondence, two moments of intensified personal statements can be discerned. The first is related to family matters – the problem of children’s education, meetings, important events in the lives of brothers and sisters. The second is related to illness and fatigue. This is when confessions about the passing of life, the sorrows and joys of life appear in the letters.
