Mechanisms of (Self)censorship in Eliza Orzeszkowa’s Correspondence with Malwina Blumberg

Abstract

Eliza Orzeszkowa’s correspondence with Malwina Blumberg brings many interesting traces of self-censorship or censorship by third parties. Malwina Blumberg, a translator of Orzeszkowa’s works into German, became so close to the writer over the years that the author of Nad Niemnem  revealed to her self-censorship practices and the mechanisms of Aesop’s speech used in literary works. The explanations of the reasons and methods of applying stylistic treatments are an important signal of how Orzeszkowa treated both the prohibitions of tsarist censorship and her own readers.