Abstracts, nr 1 (9) 2025

Elżbieta Dutka

Not Much Has Been Written about the Mountains… On the Subject of Mountain Studies

The article discusses the research subject of mountain studies. The standpoints of two scholars, representative for Polish literary studies, are distinguished, that of Jacek Kolbuszewski’s and Tomasz Stępień’s. While Kolbuszewski argues that the term “mountain literature,” however popular, is imprecise and it is more justified to speak of a theme or a motif of mountains in literature, Stępień draws upon the developments in media studies and adopts a broader definition encompassing all literature somehow related to mountains. Both researchers are united in their conviction that mountaineering literature (the works written by climbers) is a separate phenomenon in literature.

Oliver Lubrich, Thomas Nehrlich

The Aesthetics and Politics of Volcanoes: William Hamilton’s Campi Phlegraei

William Hamilton (1730–1803) was one of the foremost volcanologists of his time, renowned for his scientific contributions as well as his glamorous life. Born into British aristocracy, he served as a diplomat in Naples, where he climbed Vesuvius over 50 times and witnessed numerous eruptions. His observations culminated in the publication of Campi Phlegraei (1776/1779), which, at the time, was the most accurate account of the Phlegraean Fields in Campania, now recognized as one of the largest supervolcanoes on Earth. Hamilton was married to the much younger Lady Emma, who became the lover of Admiral Nelson, the subject of various movies as well as Susan Sontag’s novel The Volcano Lover. He collected ancient artifacts and captivated visitors such as Goethe with his passion for antiquity. Most importantly, his geological expeditions uncovered the volcanic origins of southern Italy, highlighting the dual nature of seismic activity – both destructive and essential for the region’s fertility. His vivid accounts illustrate the forces of nature, laying foundational insights for modern geology. Campi Phlegraei,
illustrated by Pietro Fabris, combines scientific precision with artistic flair, capturing the pleasant landscapes and perilous eruptions around Naples while pioneering the aesthetics of nature writing. Set against the backdrop of political unrest and the “eruption” of the French Revolution, Hamilton’s reports also reflect the sociopolitical climate of his time. Inspiring writers and artists, his legacy continues to resonate. It offers a historical perspective on today’s environmental challenges and contemporary discourses on climate change and disaster management.

Barbara Szargot, Maciej Szargot

Zygmunt Krasiński in the Alps

This article examines Zygmunt Krasiński’s travels through the Alps between 1829 and 1830, as described in his letters, prose fragments, and French-language diary. The authors focus on how Krasiński depicted the places he visited, viewed through the lens of Romantic aesthetics, emotional sensibility, and – above all – his literary influences. The article also highlights the evolution of his writing from epigonic imitation to creative independence.

Ewa Roszkowska

“I Know What I Have to Lose, and I Know What I Have to Gain…” – On Mountaineering by Mieczysław Karłowicz

This article presents Mieczysław Karłowicz as a devoted admirer of the Tatra Mountains, offering an analysis of his views on mountains and mountaineering. Contrary to the prevailing belief of over a century, Karłowicz did not adopt extreme aestheticism or decadence in his approach to climbing. Instead, he was one of the founders of a modern ideology of Tatra mountaineering. He defined the ideal of the mountaineer and sought to reconcile the opposing extremes inherent in the act of climbing. While he did not reject the athletic aspect of mountaineering, he saw it as a necessary means to achieve a greater goal: the search for and experience of the beauty of the mountains.

Jakub Żmidziński

“The Mountains Shall Speak…” – Visual, Acoustic, and Mystical Aspects of the Mountain Landscape in Roman Brandstaetter’s novel “Jesus of Nazareth"

In his tetralogy, Roman Brandstaetter meticulously reconstructs the forms, colours, and sounds of the ancient Palestinian landscape. Within this setting, mountains occupy a prominent role, forming a constant line on the horizon, and key events often take place on their slopes or summits. Among the most important are the desert Mount of Temptation – Ein Dok, the hill where Jesus delivered his famous sermon, Mount Hermon – associated by the author with the scene of the scene of the Transfiguration – the Mount of Olives, and Golgotha. Furthermore, the author offers an nterpretation of the primordial theology of mountains, drawing on Jewish and Christian mystical traditions.

Przemysław Kaliszuk

“This Mountaineering is Really an Idiotic Idea…”: Jan Długosz and textualized Climbing

This article explores the mountaineering writing of Jan Długosz. The author analyses the literariness of the texts in the context of the notion of the bodily sublime and examines how Długosz sought to convey the specificity of the mountaineering experience to readers without expert knowledge of climbing. Długosz’s writing is interpreted as a crucial link in the development of Polish mountaineering literature, with its distinguishing feature identified as a “mediating” literariness.

Marcin Czerwiński

The Mountain as Phantasm and Elemental Force, as Challenge and Metaphor: A Provisional Essay on Climbing, Writing, and Reading

This article brings together selected representations of the act of climbing a mountain as found in literary texts, ranging from conventional topoi in early literature associated with the poetic arts to contemporary reflections on the creative process and interdisciplinary artistic practices that draw on mountain symbolism. The metaphor of ascending a peak also provides a structural and interpretive framework for the poem discussed in the article. In addition, the paper refers to several selected personal accounts of real mountaineering or Himalayan expeditions – including, in an autoethnographic gesture, those of the author himself. The narrative, constructed from these varied elements that form the basis of the essay, becomes a performative attempt to imagine the experience of following a mountain path.

Anna Dróżdż, Piotr Major

Mountain as a Teaching Space – Learning Medicine in Extreme Conditions

Mountain medicine is a medical discipline focused on health issues associated with high-altitude exposure and the human body’s functioning under extreme environmental conditions. With the growing popularity of mountain tourism, there is an increasing demand for healthcare professionals equipped with the knowledge and training necessary to diagnose and manage medical conditions in mountainous areas. The mountains offer a unique educational environment for training future doctors and paramedics.

Marina Marengo

The Massif Central through Its Literary Representations

In this essay we want to investigate the methods as well as the typologies of literary representations relating to the Massif Central, starting from the writers who have chosen this portion of the middle French mountains as the context to set their novels. These are literary works that have the peculiarity of representing the territorialization actions of the inhabitants as well as their ways of life, relationships, and production – of yesteryear or contemporary – of this portion of France starting from the end of the nineteenth century. The enhancement of local literary heritage has contributed to creating new dynamics of local development in the marginal areas of the mountain region in question, such as literary itineraries, literary cafés, writers’ houses, etc.

Małgorzata Okupnik

“I Admire the Wives of Famous Alpinists More Than the Alpinists Themselves” Autobiographical Narratives of Cecylia Kukuczka and Ewa Dyakowska-Berbeka

Himalayan mountaineering has two faces. The obverse is great passion, the conquest of peaks, the art of survival in extremely harsh conditions, and the acceptance of mortal risk. The reverse is the suffering endured by the climber’s loved ones—those who fear for their life during an expedition and, in the event of tragedy, mourn their death in the mountains. Telling are the words of Wanda Rutkiewicz: “I admire the wives of famous mountaineers more than the mountaineers themselves.” The passion of these husbands often takes more from their wives than it gives. The subject of this analysis is the autobiographical narratives of Cecylia Kukuczka and Ewa Dyakowska-Berbeka.

Teodoro Katinis

Praising Praise. Speroni’s Short Treatise on the Demonstrative Genre

This contribution presents an analysis of the short treatise De genere demonstrativo by the Paduan rhetorician and philosopher Sperone Speroni (1500–1588), a highly relevant figure of the Italian Cinquecento. The main point of Speroni’s treatise is to defend demonstrative rhetoric against its detractors and to give it a larger space than Aristotle did in his Art of Rhetoric. I focus on the dialogue of the text with the rhetorical tradition and on the original aspects of Speroni’s argumentation in favor of praise, with particular attention to the technique of amplification. In conducting this examination, I highlight some of the rhetorical strategies that Speroni himself applies in praising praise.

Sara Gallegati

Notes on Vittorio Alfieri’s “La virtù sconosciuta"

Alfieri’s La virtù sconosciuta is one of the author’s most personal texts. The work, a dialogue with his deceased friend Francesco Gori Gandellini, recalls an essential fragment of the author’s life and work from 1786. The text contains many stories about the his-
tory of literature, Alfier’s past and future, and specific fragments of his autobiography, which the author published shortly thereafter. However, the article attempts to emphasise the political significance of this work. As Giuseppe Ricuperati claims, in fact, this dia­logue, along with other treatises, refers to the European Enlightenment tradition and is close to authors such as Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Helvétius, Boulanger, Mirabeau, Diderot. The study, therefore, attempts to highlight the political level of the work by examining its various aspects, from the choice of the interlocutor, a Republican from Siena, to the points of contact of this dialogue with other political works of the Asti area. Histori­cal and archival aspects are then examined: the work was developed at the Kehl print­ing house, where Alfieri published his other political texts to escape the restrictions of French censorship. Finally, the first draft of La virtù sconosciuta appears in the same formula in which the above-mentioned political works are created.

Elena Grazioli

Elémire Zolla and “Nuovi Argomenti”: the Laboratory of Eclissi dell’intelettuale

The essay examines Elémire Zolla’s contributions to “Nuovi Argomenti”. It highlights how the journal was considered a ‘privileged venue’ for the publication of his works by publishing the core content of Eclissi dell’intellettuale, despite Zolla’s intense work du­r­ing the same period at “Tempo Presente”. More broadly, it analyzes Zolla’s different contributions to Carocci’s and Moravia’s periodical, ranging from responses to surveys to the more literary essay Proust e la politica di potenza. It aims to contextualize his early work in Rome within the general trajectory of his research and scholarly interests, particularly focusing on critical theory concerning his contemporary society.