he term epistle can be defined as a
literary letter. The primary concept in studying each epistle is the work's
epistolarity. This is defined as "the use of the letter's formal properties to
create meaning." Meaning is created in letters through figures of speech and
other narrative qualities. Literary critics judge works with respect to
epistolarity subjectively(Altman 4).
Among the first epistle to be written were the letters of Paul to the New Testament churches. Women established themselves in the genre as men realized that the form was more suitable to the female writer's style. However, due to the modest qualities of the women, little was ever published (Goldsmith vii). In the eighteenth-century, epistolary peaked in Europe. Among the popular epistolary novels of this time were Laclos's Les Liaisons Dangereueses(1782), Richardson's Pamela(1740) and Clarissa(1747), and Rousseau's La Nouvelle Heloise(1761)(Norwich 148). Later in the same century, Forcey says "the epistolary novel could not survive as a dominant form because, in the fast changing polygot world of . . . Anglo-America, it fell victim to the same forces of seduction and betrayal that its heroines were unable to avoid"(225). In the 1970s, fictional letters reentered the literary arena. Creative writers spawned this interest with Michel Butor's Illustrations III(1972) and Bod Randall's The Fan(1977)(Altman 3).
An epistolary novel is one that is "written in the form of a series of letters exchanged among the characters of the story with extract? from their journals sometimes included"(Norwich 148). This genre exhibits the quality in which there are two separate audiences to the letter: a character of the novel and the reader. The reader is required to become his own narrator since the plot is not being directly told by the author. The author can be compare to an editor since he has control of the epistolary composition. However, he must trust that the reader will understand the meaning and the purpose behind each correspondence(Forcey 229).
When speaking of epistles, people frequently think of Paul, the apostle of Christ and writer of many of the books in the New Testament. His God-inspired letters were written to and concerning the churches and pastors(called the Pastoral Letters) of that time period. However, the meanings of the letters written in the first-century A.D are still alive in today's Christian church. The foundation, the primary establisher of meaning in the epistles, is the life Jesus recorded in the four gospels. Paul also used the ideas of logos and ethos in the letters. Since the Holy Bible is God-inspired there is absolutely nothing that is illogical within its covers. An example of syllogism can be seen in Romans 5:2-4.
And we rejoice in the hope of the Glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.The author's credibilty, ethos, must be established for a successful epistle. In his 2 Corinthians, Paul must establish his ethos since the church does not believe his claims as one of the Twelve Apostles. He writes of his pain and suffering for cause of the Cross:
[I have] been exposed to death time and time again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea.(2 Cor 11:23-25)Paul continues writing of his suffering of spreading the gospel for the remainder of the epistle. Certainly a man who has suffered this persecution and has no doubts has seen the power of God.
