Mountain and Mountaineering Literature
The term “mountain literature” is now widely used by mountain enthusiasts, in the specialist press or online, [5] it also appears in academic journals [6]. However, from a literary point of view, the issue is more complex. Opinions are divided regarding the legitimacy of differentiations within mountain literature, how does mountain literature function and what is the proper nomenclature to be used.
Various doubts related to mountain literature are voiced in works by Jacek Kolbuszewski, a scholar who spent several decades researching mountain issues. He can be credited as having written the most about mountains among Polish literary scholars [7].
[5] “Mountain bibliography” is published in the pages of Wierchy [Peaks]. Wierchy is a yearbook devoted to the mountains, published since 1923. Initially, the publisher was the Towarzystwo Tatrzańskie [Tatra Society], and since 1951, Wierchy has been published by the Polskie Towarzystwo Turystyczno-Krajoznawcze [Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society]. An extensive and very detailed bibliography of mountain literature has also been posted on the website of the Students’ Mountain Club of the University of Warsaw. The inventory is divided into two parts: Mountain Literature 1945–85 and Contemporary Literature (Mountain Literature…). Many websites and portals devoted to mountain literature could be pointed out, such as: MountainBooks; Mountain Literature – what’s worth reading?
[6] For example, Antonina Sebesta characterises the written sources on which she based her research as follows: “These include both the socalled mountain literature: memoirs (including obituaries), interviews, letters, diaries, journals, reports, columns, short stories, poems, as well as reports, statistical materials and other official data contained in Wierchy, Pamiętniki Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego [Yearbook of the Tatra Society], Pamiętniki Polskiego Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego [Yearbook of the Polish Tatra Society] or chronicles of mountain organisations. Supplemented by reading manuals, guidebooks, training materials, many mountain and tourism periodicals, portals and websites” (Sebesta 2014: 18).
[7] “In the relatively small group of Polish scholars scientifically interested in the place and role of mountains in literature and culture, he is probably the only one who has consistently dealt with this issue for more than half a century and has an unquestionably great output in this field of literary and cultural exegesis” (Wójcik 2016: 8).