{"id":4621,"date":"2025-06-26T19:36:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T17:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fabrica.us.edu.pl\/?p=4621"},"modified":"2025-08-04T19:42:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T17:42:53","slug":"not-much-has-been-written-about-the-mountains-on-the-subject-of-mountain-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fabrica.us.edu.pl\/?p=4621&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Not Much Has Been Written about the Mountains\u2026 On the Subject of Mountain Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

El\u017cbieta Dutka<\/a><\/h2>\n

(Uniwersytet \u015al\u0105ski w Katowicach)
E-mail: elzbieta.dutka[at]us.edu.pl
ORCID<\/a>: 0000-0002-5404-2586
DOI<\/a>: 10.31261\/FLPI.2025.09.14
\u201eFabrica Litterarum Polono-Italica\u201d 2025, nr 1.<\/p>\n

Download the article\u0142<\/strong><\/a>
Download all issue<\/a><\/strong>
Abstract in Polish<\/a>, Italian<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Introduction: \u201cA Considerable Amount Has Been Written about the Mountains\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In his book G\u00f3ry niewzruszone. O r\u00f3\u017cnych wyobra\u017ceniach przyrody w dziejach nowo\u017cytnej kultury europejskiej<\/em> [The Immovable Mountains. On Various Representations of Nature in the History of Modern European Culture], after referring to the famous praises of the mountain landscape by Carl Gustav Carus and John Ruskin, Polish art historian and mountain lover \u2013 Jacek Wo\u017aniakowski adds: \u201cAnd above all, there have been quite a few mountains painted\u201d (Wo\u017aniakowski 2011: 12). The statement does not so much reflect the enormity of the material to be examined as it has bitter and sceptical overtones. However, in the preceding pages, while summarising his search for mountains in European painting, he declares: \u201cNowhere in these works of art, did I find mountains\u201d (Wo\u017aniakowski 2011: 9). As soon as in the introduction Wo\u017aniakowski mentions \u201cmountain kitsch\u201d and signals numerous doubts related to the possibility of depicting summits in paintings. He discusses what precisely stymies the efforts of painters who undertake this task:<\/p>\n

\n

So is there any particular difficulty to be overcome if one wishes to duly depict mountains? Is it perhaps in the contrast between the matter of the subject and the matter of the painting? […] How can one render the crystalline resistance of a rock, the jagged line of a ridge, the glaring whiteness of snow, the hard tonal contrasts with the use of oil or the watercolour? How can one enclose colossal size differences within picture frames [on canvas \u2013 E. D.] (Wo\u017aniakowski 2011: 10).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In an analogous way, paraphrasing Wo\u017aniakowski words, a literary scholar might note: \u201cA lot has been written about mountains.\u201d As in the case of painting, the abundance of mountain-themed literary works seems to promise much. However, here too, enthusiasm is mixed with scepticism [1].<\/p>\n

Mountains are a challenging topic for writers. Mountains are also a problem for literary scholars, who, in their search for summits in literature, make use of tools suggested by various methodological schools and research trends: from thematology to regionalism and geopetics to comparative and intersemiotic approaches. In recent decades, a distinct study of mountain space \u2013 namely, the field of mountain studies \u2013 has crystallised in the global scholarship. This is a new terminological proposal and a new approach to the issue.<\/p>\n

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[1] Jacek Kolbuszewski mentions his conversation with Wiktor Ostrowski, a renown Polish mountaineer, in 1978, during which the latter \u201cremarked that the \u2018absence of mountains\u2019 is strikingly characteristic of contemporary mountaineering literature\u201d (Kolbuszewski 1982: 623).<\/p>\n

To a certain extent, however, it is a continuation of scientific and scholarly thinking about mountains, the tradition of which dates back to the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries [2]. In Poland, mountain studiesare present, among others, through the Mountain Series of the Universitas publishing house. On the covers of successive volumes published in this series, mountain studiesare characterised as research conducted \u201cprimarily from an ecological perspective,\u201d testifying to \u201cthe importance of mountains, seen as natural and cultural enclaves, in terms of the development and survival of modern civilisation\u201d (Kolbuszewski 2019a: back flap)[3]. It is also noted that there is now \u201ca clear need to expand this perspective to include an indepth reflection from the broadlyunderstood humanities and related fields,\u201d as the history of cognition, exploration and conquest of mountains is \u201ca very important part of the history of civilisation and culture\u201d (Kolbuszewski 2019a: back flap). The new approach is more holistic than the previous ones and distinguished by transdisciplinarity, a particular sensitivity to ecological and environmental issues combined with an interest in the human dimension of mountains and the arts related to mountain landscapes (Sarmiento n.d. [online]).<\/p>\n

In the thus outlined framework of mountain studies, literature and literary studies can play a pivotal role. The problem, however, turns out to be merely specifying the object of mountain studiesliteratureresearch. There is no doubt that it is literary works, but how to define and name them is far from obvious. The term \u201cmountain literature,\u201d which immediately comes to mind, is one of the \u201cdisputed problems\u201d in Polish literary studies [4]. Researchers have been discussing the validity of distinguishing this type of literature for years, and various definitions have been accepted.<\/p>\n

\n

[2] The impetus for mountain exploration came with the first ascents of the highest peaks of the Alps (of Mont Blanc in 1786 and of the Matterhorn in 1865). In world science, the work of Alexander von Humboldt was pioneering. In Polish research, Stanis\u0142aw Staszic\u2019s work O ziemior\u00f3dztwie Karpat\u00f3w i innych g\u00f3r i r\u00f3wnin Polski [On the Terrogenesis of the Carpathians and Other Mountains and Plains of Poland](1815) and the Romantic theory of regional schools, to which reference was made in discussions about the Podhale\/Tatra school in literature, played an important role. The scientific mountain activities intensified in the second half of the 20th century, and have now assumed particular importance in connection with the development of environmental humanities.<\/p>\n

[3] The characteristics of mountain studieswere repeatedly discussed in subsequent volumes of the series Od Kaukazu po Sudety. Studia i szkice o poznawaniu i zamieszkiwaniu g\u00f3r dalekich i bliskich [From the Caucasus to the Sudetes. Studies and Sketches on Exploring and Inhabiting Distant and Near Mountains], and also inPigon (2022) and Ngyuen (2022).<\/p>\n

[4] I refer here to a number of published literary studies\/monographies in which, however, mountain literature issues were not addressed. See, among others: Sporne i bezsporne problemy wsp\u00f3\u0142czesnej wiedzy o literaturze polskiej [Disputable and Indisputable Problems of Contemporary Knowledge of Polish Literature]; Sporne sprawy polskiej literatury wsp\u00f3\u0142czesnej [Disputable Problems of Polish Contemporary Literature].
The development of mountain studiesprompts an attempt to resolve such a key issue. In this article I will analyse the different standpoints on the subject of \u201cmountain literature.\u201d My focus shall be the representative yet significantly divergent stances of Jacek Kolbuszewski\u02bcs and Tomasz St\u0119pie\u0144\u02bcs. Juxtaposing their works should highlight the differences in the understanding of mountain literature as well as how reflection on the writing in question has been changing over the previous half a century. The issue has also been a recurring one in the works of Marek Pacu kiewicz (2010a; 2010b), Przemys\u0142aw Kaliszuk (2018) and other researchers. The discussion on mountain literature that has been going on for years seems a good ground on which mountain studiescan develop.<\/p>\n

Mountain and Mountaineering Literature<\/h3>\n

The term \u201cmountain literature\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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].<\/p>\n

\n

[5] \u201cMountain bibliography\u201d 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 Tatrza\u0144skie [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\u2019 Mountain Club of the University of Warsaw. The inventory is divided into two parts: Mountain Literature 1945\u201385 and Contemporary Literature (Mountain Literature…). Many websites and portals devoted to mountain literature could be pointed out, such as: MountainBooks; Mountain Literature \u2013 what\u2019s worth reading?<\/p>\n

[6] For example, Antonina Sebesta characterises the written sources on which she based her research as follows: \u201cThese 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, Pami\u0119tniki Towarzystwa Tatrza\u0144skiego [Yearbook of the Tatra Society], Pami\u0119tniki Polskiego Towarzystwa Tatrza\u0144skiego [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\u201d (Sebesta 2014: 18).<\/p>\n

[7] \u201cIn 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\u201d (W\u00f3jcik 2016: 8).<\/p>\n

The bibliography of his works on the subject includes more than a hundred items (Kolbuszewski: Spis publikacji o tematyce g\u00f3rskiej [An Index of Mountain-Oriented Publications] [online]).<\/p>\n

In 1975, summarising mountain themes in Polish literature, Kolbuszewski emphasised that, through several literary generations, the mountains had become an important cultural factor. It is significant, however, that an expert on mountain issues in literature writes with a reserve about the \u201csocalled mountain literature\u201d (Kolbuszewski 1975: 41). The researcher distances himself from the popular term which integrates the milieu of \u201cprofessionals\u201d (mountaineers, climbers, mountain people), but is less useful for literary scholars due to its imprecision. At the same time, he emphasizes the significance of the phenomenon. According to Kolbuszewski, literature on mountains is not isolated from the main development trends of Polish literature but has a substantial share in them (Kolbuszewski 1975: 41).<\/p>\n

Particularly in his earlier works, Kolbuszewski emphasised categories such as motif, theme, image of mountains in literature, and wrote mainly about \u201cliterature about the Tatras\u201d (Kolbuszewski 1992: XXII; 1982). Following these findings, by analo gy, one would have to use the term \u201cliterature about mountains,\u201d or write about mountain themes in literature. However, from the perspective of contemporary mountain studies,such terms seem inadequate, as they suggest a methodological limitation (with regard to thematology research).<\/p>\n

Less dubious, according to Kolbuszewski, are the narrower terms denoting works written by climbers: literature related to tourism in the Tatra Mountains and in the Alps. He notes that mountaineering literature started to emerge in the first half of the 20th century, when the community of mountaineers became more and more numerous, although it was still connected with the intellectual ethos and a certain elitism. The process is documented by the anthology of mountaineering prose Czarny szczyt [Black Peak](Kolbuszewski 1976), edited by Kolbuszewski. He writes the following about this \u201cprofessional\u201d climbing literary work and its relationship to literature:<\/p>\n

\n

The mountaineering environment grew in numbers, but became more hermetic and closed, while literary creativity was actually limited to intraprofessional circulation, which did not prevent it from reacting vividly to the phenomena occurring in \u201cofficial\u201d literature. Hence, all the \u201c-isms\u201d that existed in \u201cthe grand literature,\u201d such as expressionism (Jan Humpola), psychologism (Wincenty Birkenmajer), constructivism (Wies\u0142aw Stanis\u0142awski), avantgarde tendencies (Jan Alfred Szczepa\u0144ski), catastrophism (Wies\u0142aw Stanis\u0142awski), and vitalism (Zdzis\u0142aw D\u0105browski), were manifestly and promptly reflected in the professional works on Tatra Mountains. At the same time, however, moun-taineers themselves treated literary creativity as \u201ca path beside the path\u201d \u2013 as a secondary and not the most important aspect accompanying the main con-tent and the sense of their endeavours, that is, climbing, which was considered by some to be the selfrealisation and creativity par excellence (Jan Alfred Szczepa\u0144ski). Hence, a new kind of aestheticism appeared in mountaineering itself, while a kind of perfectionism appeared in literary works, which \u2013 and of course thanks to the literary talents of such mountaineers as Stanis\u0142awski and Birknemajer \u2013 resulted in works of great artistic merit […]. (Kolbuszewski 1992: LIX).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

In a similar vein, Stanis\u0142aw Jaworski \u2013 the author of a selection of poems by avantgarde poets Odpowiem ci przestrzeni\u0105 [I Will Answer You with Space] \u2013 set apart mountaineering poetry. The researcher considered the first mountaineering poems to be the works of Jan Alfred Szczepa\u0144ski, who was active as a poet alongside Julian Przybo\u015b and Jan Brz\u0119kowski, and later became an outstanding mountaineer, editor of the magazine Taternik [Tatra Climber], and an organiser and activist of mountaineering movement in Poland. Mountaineering in Szczepa\u0144ski\u2019s poetry is \u201cconceived of as a source of \u2018joy of life, strength enchanted in beauty\u2019, as an arena of clashes, where \u2018with a frail climb\u2019 one breaks \u2018the resistance of the element\u2019\u201d (Jaworski 1976: 87).<\/p>\n

When Polish climbers from the Tatra Mountains set off for the high mountains (Alps, Himalayas), mountaineering literature began to develop alongside literature related to tourism in the Tatra Mountains. In a paper delivered in 1978, on the margins of a consideration of how mountaineering literature exists, Kolbuszewski writes about \u201cthe socalled\u201d and \u201cbroadly defined\u201d mountain literature (Kolbuszewski 1981:63) [8]:<\/p>\n

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Therefore mountaineering literature is a special variety of the socalled mountain literature, special in the sense that it concerns the most specialised forms of human conquering activity in the mountains, and an important distinguishing criterion for it is the respect of professional, specialised elements of knowledge of how man conquers mountains. In this sense, mountaineering literature, as opposed to mountain literature in the broadest sense, must be regarded as an effect of the professionalisation of the environment of mountain people, with the exception, however, that what we have in mind here is fine literature, and not specialised professional \u2013 \u201ctechnical\u201d literature (mountaineering manuals, climbing guides, etc.). (Kolbuszewski 1981: 55).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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[8] Kolbuszewski\u2019s findings are referred to by Pacukiewicz (2010a: 218).<\/p>\n

The researcher notes that the process of distinguishing mountaineering literature from the framework of literature (as a separate literary phenomenon) coincides with the process of the formation of mountaineering as \u201ca specific, specialised form of human activity in the mountains\u201d (Kolbuszewski 1981: 57). Unlike mountain literature, it is therefore a young, 19th- and 20th-century phenomenon (Kolbuszewski 1981: 57). Kolbuszewski regrets that mountaineering literature has not attracted the interest of literary criticism, too:<\/p>\n

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Scientific literary studies do not see the need to distinguish mountaineering literature, only occasionally, when prompted by the issues of greater importance for the national culture, taking up the notion of mountain literature (hence it is no coincidence that much nonsense has been written in our country about Asnyk, Witkiewicz, Nowicki or Tetmajer). The subject of separate studies of mountaineering literature in Poland has thus far not been a subject of study, whereas in Alpine countries it is understood as a manifestation of a mature form of mountain literature development. (Kolbuszewski 1981: 63-64).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the conclusion of his 1978 work, the researcher writes about the need for a \u201cbibliography of Polish mountain and mountaineering literature\u201d (Kolbuszewski 1981: 66).<\/p>\n

In his later works, Kolbuszewski returns to the problem of mountain literature, noting that the singling out of this type of writing (increasingly common in the 21st century) is done for more pragmatic than strictly academic reasons. For him, the growing popularity of the term in the readers\u2019 circles, in bookshops and among mountain people is not a sufficient and convincing argument. As he states:<\/p>\n

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Colloquially, mountain literature is understood as a variety of openended professional narratives related to mountain themes and geared towards public reception. I do not like and do not use this name, […] it is a broad-brush term under which all sorts phenomena are included: fiction and various genres of applied literature, creating specificclassification systems ad hoc. Systems to which I would critically refer as literary folklore. When dealing with literature, the history of literature, I systematise things using a few basic categories: theme, motif, literary genre \u2013 their function and the way they enter into circulation, that is, to whom the works in question are addressed, how, by whom and why they are read, and how they have a social impact. I therefore prefer to talk about mountain themes in literature. (Kolbuszewski 2019b: 82) [9].<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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[9] Quoted from Mirek (2020The term \u201cmountain literature\u201d is therefore known and quite commonly used, although at the same time, it is questioned and turns out to be extremely difficult to define. This paradox is presented by Tomasz St\u0119pie\u0144 as follows:<\/p>\n

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The term \u201cmountain literature\u201d 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 tatrza\u0144ska [Tarta Mountain Literature] (published by Wydawnictwo Literackie), Seria z tr\u00f3jk\u0105tem [The Series with a Triangle] (AT Hudowski & Marcisz), Literatura g\u00f3rska na \u015bwiecie [Mountain Literature in the World] (Stapis). We can also encounter publishing houses with distinctive names \u2013 Wydawnictwo G\u00f3rskie [Mountain Publishing House] (with its seat in Poronin), G\u00f3ry Books [Mountains Book] (Krak\u00f3w). Internet bookshops affiliated with mountaineering and climbing websites (e.g. wspinanie.pl) also offer literature defined in this way. What, then, does the term \u201cmountain literature\u201d functioning among publishers and readers mean? (St\u0119pie\u0144 2021: 187).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

St\u0119pie\u0144 adopts a broad definition of mountain literature, encompassing \u201cwriting 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.)\u201d (St\u0119pie\u0144 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:<\/p>\n

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Contemporary \u201cmountain\u201d 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 \u201cprofessional\u201d writers and the \u201cmountain people\u201d themselves (tourists, mountaineers, mountain rescuers) \u2013 the latter prefer fiction based on facts or various forms of documentary literature.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

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Thus, poems, short stories and novels using literary fiction thematically linked to mountains and climbing are one area of \u201cmountain\u201d literature, and the second is various forms of documentary literature (accounts of specific expeditions, biographies, autobiographies and memoirs of \u201cmountain people\u201d). The third area of mountain literature is specialised literature, namely, hiking and climbing guides and handbooks and manuals teaching techniques used in alpine tourism for learning rock climbing, different varieties of mountaineering, speleology, ski tourism and alpine skiing (ski mountaineering). The fourth area of this literature is popular and scientific literature related to tourism and mountain sports (encyclopaedic publications, works on the history of mountaineering, studies on mountain medicine). Separate types of publications (mountain photography) are albums depicting mountains in various parts of the world and catalogues and advertising brochures (clothing, equipment and gear).<\/p>\n

Among the mentioned areas of \u201cmountain\u201d literature (writing), the literary scholar will be most interested in fictional texts \u2013 narratives that fall between documentary and fiction (i.e. \u201cmountain\u201d non-fiction and personal documentaries and \u201cmountain\u201d fiction). (St\u0119pie\u0144 2012: 93-94).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

St\u0119pie\u0144 justified his stance more precisely by conducting a research survey. He took as his starting point the broad definitions of mountain literature found in non-literature compendia (Kie\u0142kowska, Kie\u0142kowski 2003: 341; Radwa\u0144ska-Pary-ska, Paryski 2004: 935\u2013936). The editors of Wielka encyklopedia g\u00f3r i alpinizmu[The Great Encyclopaedia of the Mountains and Mountaineering]and the authors of Wielka encyklopedia tatrza\u0144ska [The Great Encyclopaedia of the Tatra Mountains]explain that this is the entirety of literature on the mountains, which includes fiction in addition to scientific literature, guidebooks or tourist guides (St\u0119pie\u0144 2021: 188). St\u0119pie\u0144 adds that there is historical justification for this approach (2021: 189\u2013200). Mountain literature begins with the knowledge of the local mountain ranges and their inscription in the various areas of symbolic culture of a given community, and thus includes the most ancient records and accounts of the first travellers, folklore, journalism, etc. The Romantic interest in the mountains introduced them into fiction and documentary literature for good. However, the subject matter became exhausted in mainstream literature by the turn of the 20th century. The development of the mountaineering community then influenced the emergence of a professional writing, with the mountains as a space for the practice of a specific sport. At this point, St\u0119pie\u0144, like Kolbuszewski, writes about the emergence of mountaineering literature and indicates the possibility of a more precise definition: on the one hand, there is \u201ca broadly defined fiction (and other varieties of writing) dedicated to such or such mountains,\u201d and on the other hand, \u201cliterature created and read within mountaineering subcultures\u201d (2021: 196). <\/p>\n

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With the development of mountaineering and the increasing accessibility of the highest mountains, this second literature is emerging more and more from the closed circle of the community and appearing in wide public circulation. This is also fostered by the development of the media, disseminating accounts of high-mountain climbing. St\u0119pie\u0144 writes about mountain non-fiction, within which expedition books and reportages are popular, and about mountain personal document literature, represented by memoirs, autobiographies and biographies of outstanding mountaineers, often appearing in the form of inter-view-based books [10]:<\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
This mountain documentary literature (expedition accounts and autobiographies) constitutes the most extensive sector of contemporary mountain literature in Poland and internationally. Of course, accounts of dramatic or tragic events in the mountains are in greatest demand, and bestsellers can in turn count on film adaptations. (St\u0119pie\u0144 2021: 202).<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The division into mountain literature and mountaineering literature highlighted by St\u0119pie\u0144 can be found in foreign studies. In English, it is well reflected in the play of sounds and meanings in the terms mountain literatureand mountaineering literature(Macfarlane 2019: xvi),absent in the Polish translation: literatura g\u00f3rskai literatura wspinaczkowa [mountain literature and mountaineering literature](Macfarlane 2022: 19).<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The proposed delineations seem justified and have already been adopted by researchers. Mountaineering works in particular are increasingly becoming the subject of literary and cultural studies analyses. An outline of the history of Polish \u201cHimalayan literature\u201d in the perspective of its evolutionary genre transformations (from expedition diary to road novel) has been proposed by Ewa Grz\u0119da (2022: 70\u201396). The researcher draws attention to the writing of Adam Karpinski, Jakub Bujak, Adam Skoczylas, Wojciech Kurtyka, and Marek Raganowicz, among others. Julie Rak\u2019s monograph False Summit: Gender in Mountaineering Non Fiction analyses the accounts of expeditions to three eight-thousanders, particularly significant for Himalayan climbers (i.e. Annapurna, K2, and Mount Everest) focusing on the exclusions made therein (2021: 7). Margret Grabowicz, on the other hand, while referring to various accounts of expeditions to the highest peaks, writes about Himalayan mountaineering as \u201ca sort of symptom of European modernity\u201d (2021: 2).<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
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[10]  Non-fiction and personal documentary literature are also identified by Przemys\u0142aw Kaliszuk as points of reference. However, this researcher emphasises the borderline character of the Himalayan narratives, which are utilitarian-documentary texts, but at the same time \u201cshow characteristics inherent in literature\u201d: \u201cThe Himalayan narratives are simultaneously expert (in terms of climbing and mountain knowledge) and amateur (in terms of literary competence). They expose this borderline positioning and belong fully neither to literature nor to applied or documentary writing\u201d (Kaliszuk 2018: 60).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The juxtaposition of the various accounts, ranging from John Hunt\u2019s 1953 account of the first ascent of Everest (1953) to the film accounts of Alex Hohnold\u2019s solo climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park (film Free Solo 2018), allows Grabowicz to trace not only the changes taking place in the way mountains and climbers are perceived, but also \u2013 more broadly \u2013 the processes taking place in culture.<\/p>\n

However, sometimes these two types of literature: mountain literature and mountaineering literature (literature related to climbing in the Tatra Mountains, in the Alps, and in the Himalayas) are equated. This can be seen, for example, in an article by Andrzej Mirek, who, wondering whether the popularity of mountain literature is a transient fad or a permanent trend, states:<\/p>\n

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Once in a while, mountain literature is literature tout court. There is no denying that the combination of writing and climbing skills is something special. It seems possible that inferiority complex felt by mountain people towards literature has a paralysing effect on them. They themselves once read something that enthralled them, and they would love to write like that too. More often than not, however, wanting does not mean being able to. A large part of what is published on the market are technical accounts of expeditions. Even if the co-author of the book is a writer, taking the expedition memoirs to a higher level is most often not so much impossible as unsuccessful. Detailed accounts of the setting up of camps and the arduous ascent of the summit simply do not have the necessary potential. It is somewhat of a paradox that the best \u201cmountain books\u201d are written when ice and rock exploits are juxtaposed with details of life outside climbing. Distance, irony and vivid honesty are further ingredients, promising an interesting read, yet not guaranteeing it. (Mirek 2020).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Conclusions: Mountain Studiesfrom the Literary StudiesPerspective<\/h3>\n

The main distinguishing feature of mountain literature \u2013 according to St\u0119pie\u0144 \u2013 is… mountains. The statement strikes one as obvious, but the way he explains it reflects well the transdisciplinary and holistic nature of mountain studies:<\/p>\n

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\u201cMountain\u201d literature owes its existence to the mountains, it is constituted by this specific space, the mountains \u2013 that is, \u201careas of great height differences, rising above the surrounding terrain from which they usually also differ in terms of geological structure and vegetation and fauna\u201d determine its ontic status. (St\u0119pie\u0144 2012: 87).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It also seems that this statement can be reconciled by literary scholars discussing the subject of mountain studies. References to mountains, the specific poetics of mountain space and the cultureforming role of mountains were pointed out by Kolbuszewski, although he added a caveat:<\/p>\n

\n

The concept of the cultureforming role of mountains is as much a metaphor as it is a vague mental shortcut, but it is worth using because of its illustrative and expressive character […]. Mountains in the objective sense are not a \u201ccultural fact\u201d; as a phenomenon of nature, they do not actively perform any actions towards man that result in values par excellence cultural. Their persistence is an indifference to man, happening according to the laws of nature, and it is only when they are \u201cdiscovered,\u201d only when they are \u201cconstituted into a concept\u201d \u2013 and thus when man adopts some kind of attitude towards them \u2013 that they begin to be treated as a culture-creating factor as a result of the peculiar \u201cinsinuations\u201d made about them. (Kolbuszewski 1992: X).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What, however, are these references, these \u201cinsinuations\u201d? I think they are well represented by two versions of the same quotation from a work by a mountaineer, Wawrzyniec \u017bu\u0142awski [11]. He recalls the moment when he realised that the notes from his expedition had ceased to be merely giving account or individual memory record and had become something more, namely, literature:<\/p>\n

\n

Numbers and notes are dry and objective, but when the thought stops for a moment at one of them \u2013 a small book with a red cover becomes lively. Numbers and notes take shape, clothe themselves in flesh, speak, narrate \u2013 and beyond them the mountains become the inseparable background.(\u017bu\u0142awski 1967: 251 [emphasis added \u2013 E. D.]).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In a later edition, probably due to a printing error, the \u201cinseparable background\u201d [in Polish: nieodst\u0119pne t\u0142o] was changed to \u201cinaccessible background\u201d [in Polish niedost\u0119pne t\u0142o] (\u017bu\u0142awski 1985: 249). The most recent edition reverts to the version in the first printing (\u017bu\u0142awski 1958: 278) \u2013 the mountains again become \u201cinseparable background\u201d (\u017bu\u0142awski 2012: 126). A small alternation (a typo), but how significant, reflecting the complex ambiguity of space in mountain literature.<\/p>\n

\n

[11] This is pointed out by Dutka (2018: 130).<\/p>\n

On the one hand, mountains are the \u201cinseparable background\u201d \u2013 the most important, indispensable background, without them not only there would be no hikes and adventures, no accounts of high-mountain expeditions \u2013 that piece of knowledge about oneself, about being, which became part of mountaineer\u2019s identity, but also the very subject of mountain studies. On the other hand, it is an \u201cinaccessible background\u201d that eludes language, does not lend itself to description (Pacukiewicz 2010a: 225). A considerable amount has been written about mountains…<\/p>\n

Translated by Katarzyna Str\u0119bska-Liszewska<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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    \n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    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\u2019s and Tomasz St\u0119pie\u0144\u2019s. While Kolbuszewski argues that the term \u201cmountain literature,\u201d however popular, is imprecise and it is more justified to speak of a theme or a motif of mountains in literature, St\u0119pie\u0144 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[528,3789,3627,3635],"tags":[3645,3815,3795,3768,3805,3809],"class_list":["post-4621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-and-studies","category-elzbieta-dutka-en","category-nr-1-9-2025-en","category-towards-mountain-studies","tag-elzbieta-dutka-en","tag-jacek-kolbuszewski-en","tag-mountain","tag-mountain-literature","tag-mountaineering-literature","tag-tomasz-stepien-en","clearfix"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fabrica.us.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fabrica.us.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fabrica.us.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fabrica.us.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fabrica.us.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4621"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.fabrica.us.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4626,"href":"https:\/\/www.fabrica.us.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions\/4626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fabrica.us.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fabrica.us.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fabrica.us.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}