Time in Letters: The Expression, Understanding, and Experience of Time in the Epistolary Discourse of Officer Baron Maximilian Raigersfeld (1733–1802) and the Student Adolf von Breckerfeld (1783–1841)

Abstract

Maximilian Raigersfeld, an officer in the Seven Years’ War, and Adolf von Breckerfeld, a law student in Vienna between 1803 and 1805, expressed time in their letters to their fathers by using four temporal types. The first type is urban, secular time, determined by standardized calendars and clocks. The second type is interrupted time that elapses between sealing one letter and writing the next. The third type of time is descriptive, and the fourth type is expressive time. Using the third type, the writers are rather neutral to the content described and report, while using the fourth type, they are physically and emotionally involved and interpret. Raigersfeld’s time is predominantly descriptive, and Breckerfeld’s is predominantly expressive.