The term “mountain literature” cannot be found in Polish dictionaries of literary terms, nor can it be found in compendia on genology. At the same time, in bookshops and antiquarian bookshops, we can find books which are part of specialist publishing series, such as Literatura tatrzańska [Tarta Mountain Literature] (published by Wydawnictwo Literackie), Seria z trójkątem [The Series with a Triangle] (AT Hudowski & Marcisz), Literatura górska na świecie [Mountain Literature in the World] (Stapis). We can also encounter publishing houses with distinctive names – Wydawnictwo Górskie [Mountain Publishing House] (with its seat in Poronin), Góry Books [Mountains Book] (Kraków). Internet bookshops affiliated with mountaineering and climbing websites (e.g. wspinanie.pl) also offer literature defined in this way. What, then, does the term “mountain literature” functioning among publishers and readers mean? (Stępień 2021: 187).
Stępień adopts a broad definition of mountain literature, encompassing “writing on various aspects of mountain space, functionally diverse (scientific, popular science, fiction, memoir, and guidebook literature), problemoriented (geology, botany, zoology, folklore, history and theory of mountaineering), and geographically diverse (Tatra Mountains, Alps, Caucasus, Andes, Himalayas, etc.)” (Stępień 2012: 88). Such a broad outline of the framework of mountain literature is prompted by the expansion of the boundaries of literature in contemporary literary studies, moving away from narrowly conceived literary fiction. He also points out the sociological aspects of this literature and distinguishes four areas within it:
Contemporary “mountain” literature therefore encompasses a sector of texts whose collective protagonist and primary audience and target group is the Polish and international mountaineering community and a wide range of its sympathisers. It is poetry (relatively rarely) and prose written both by “professional” writers and the “mountain people” themselves (tourists, mountaineers, mountain rescuers) – the latter prefer fiction based on facts or various forms of documentary literature.