Writing Upwards: How the Weak Wrote to the Powerful

“Writing Upwards” describes a genre of letter-writing between two very unequal correspondents. Humble subjects wrote individually to monarchs and other rulers, workers wrote to factory bosses, impoverished refugees wrote to relief committees, parishioners wrote to their clergy and also to God. Often, but not always, they wrote in pursuit of some personal advantage. They trusted in the power of a personal approach to by-pass bureaucratic procedures which seemed insensitive and obstructive. In order to ingratiate themselves, they borrowed or at least crudely imitated the language of their superiors. My paper draws on published research from Italy and elsewhere to identify the principal modes of “writing upwards,” whether deferential, demanding or downright abusive. In the case of the letters of Australian Aboriginal people to their administrators, new elements emerge: an appeal to shared Christian values, and the notion of a contractual obligation yet to be fulfilled.