Epistolary Affect and Romance Scams: Letter from an Unknown Woman<sup>*</sup>

Steyerl, H. (2011) — October
Synopsis

This work is presented as a catalog-style inquiry into how written address and emotional rhetoric operate within the framework of romance and deception. The item treats the epistolary form as a vehicle for affect, tracing how letters\nauthentic or probabilistic in tone, shape mood, attachment, and perceived intimacy while simultaneously enabling strategic manipulation. The Unknown Woman figure is described as a vocal envelope through which longing, secrecy, and desire are enacted, with emphasis placed on how the written voice constructs distance, trust, and identification for the recipient. The October designation signals a temporal framing that situates the work within contemporary discourse on communication, sincerity, and online or printed correspondences. The synopsis surveys themes of affective economy, performance of credibility, and the mechanics of romance scams within epistolary narration. It highlights formal features such as direct address, rhetorical immediacy, and staged revelation, and it considers how such features can both solicit empathy and solicit trust. The discussion positions romance scams as a lens for examining ethical and cultural dimensions of letter writing, including expectations of intimate disclosure, power dynamics between sender and recipient, and the vulnerability of audiences to persuasive affect. The entry further notes interdisciplinary connections to literary studies, media studies, and cultural history, with attention to how epistolary practice mediates feeling, belief, and skepticism in communicative networks.
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