ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapters, we discussed some of the ways in which the epistolary subject imagines her correspondent, senses their “presence,” by reading a set of material signs: “this, which ran from under your fi ngers while you wrote it!”3 In some cases these imaginings are productive, creating an epistolary space within which a particular friendship can fl ourish. At other times epistolary partners may imagine each other in confl icting ways. The epistolary friendship between Mitford and Elford is instructive in this regard. This chapter focuses on the intriguing correspondence between these two writers to reveal some of the tensions, ruptures and displacements often produced by technologies of presence. In turn, the chapter locates these affective states in relation to the Romantic conception of art, creativity and writing.
