Academic literature on the topic 'Mountaineering, fiction'

The article is an analysis of a text by a well-known Polish mountaineer in the context of „mountain” literature (mountaineering, climbing). It is a specific subcultural literature that sits between non-fiction and autobiographical literature, written by mountaineers for mountaineers and lovers of this specific sport. The text points to the uniqueness of Chinese maharaja within the ranks of typical mountaineering literature (creative narrative, specific worldview, broad audience).

While Wanda Rutkiewicz’s achievements and her attempts to enter the mountaineering world are being more and more publicized, information about British and American women who tried to become climbers is not widely known in Poland. Thus, this article is an attempt to draw attention to a few selected female endeavours to enter the mountain landscape, which, from the beginning, was usually perceived as a male world rather unsuitable for women. Analyzing the selected passages derived from British and American non-fiction literature published in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, the author of this article seeks to show that, admittedly, men allowed women to enter the mountain world, yet in most cases women’s actions were not perceived as appropriate for female climbers.

One of characteristic phenomena in contemporary Polish literary culture is the emergence of a niche phenomenon of mountain literature. The term “mountain literature” has become part of colloquial discourse, also aspiring to be present in the language of literature studies (including literary criticism), which previously featured terms like “Alpine literature”, “mountaineering literature”, “Tatra literature”, “Tatra prose”. Other commonly used terms were “mountain climbing literature” and “exploration literature”. The term “Alpine literature” was introduced into scholarly discourse by Claire-Éliane Engel (1903–1976). The author of the present study points to links between the history of mountain literature, and the history of mountain exploration as well as history of tourism and mountaineering, referring to the literary traditions of various mountain ranges: the Alps, the Tatras, Karkonosze (Giant Mountains), Bieszczady, Gorce, Beskids, Góry Świętokrzyskie (Holy Cross Mountains). In addition, there are strands of research dealing with a typological analysis of mountain motifs and their function. The significance of such studies lies in the fact that they demonstrate in a clear manner the introduction of mountain motifs into literature and the evolution of the artistic forms of their expression. However, transformations in the literary approach to the mountains cannot be documented only by means of a territorial selection of specific motifs, and the whole question of depicting mountains and responding to them cannot be locked within the limited framework of the various national literatures. What is useful in this respect is a comprehensive comparative approach to the subject matter, interpreted both in the synchronic (formation of attitudes) and diachronic perspective (so-called influences, impact of models, borrowing of poetics also in connection with changes in tourist or mountaineering styles). What becomes of crucial significance here is the use of more general categories and comprehensive collective terms — mountain literature, mountaineering literature, mountain climbing literature. These categories encompass works dealing primarily with the mountains and human interactions with them. They bring in a supranational and supraterritorial understanding of the subject of mountains, without limiting the role of territorial detail in the construction of literary motifs and images. In defining mountain literature the author uses the classification of the function of nature motifs in literary works presented by Tadeusz Makowiecki in Sprawozdania Towarzystwa Naukowego w Toruniu in 1951, in his article “Funkcja motywu przyrody w dziele literackim” (Function of a nature motif in a literary work).1 On the other hand, when it comes to the phenomena discussed in the study, what is representative of fiction is a type of narrative genre known as mountain novel (roman de montagne, Bergroman). Referring to archetypic formulas of mountain literature (Dante, Petrarch, Salomon Gessner, Jean A. Deluc, H.B. de Saussure), the author points to their formal aspects: thematic-substantive, linguistic and genological. In addition, he discusses the emergence of mountaineering literature (Edward Whymper, Leslie Stephen, Polish mountaineers’ prose).

In the 1940s–1960s, the USSR made an ideological turn from leftist sports politics to the struggle for Olympic achievements. How has this U-turn affected the social order in Soviet sport and its artistic repre-sentation? The article offers a systematic review of Soviet sport fiction films. The study of sport and fit-ness imagination is conducted through a correlation between artistic performance and social context. Fo-cusing on the 1950s–1980s, we found three different types of representation: № 1 is the creating of a hero (for an elite athlete). This is the lion’s share of all sport movies where the “Myth of a Hero” in Olympic sport was constructed. In praising elite sport, modern Russian movies continue the well-known Soviet tradition; № 2 is the laughing at clowns (for mass sportsmen). These are mostly episodes in feature films on themes, where mass sport (i.e., non-elite, grassroots, recreational, fitness, and ordinary) is mentioned. Surprisingly, this sport is presented in a comic sense (except hiking and mountaineering); №3 is sport reality. This type comprises the tiniest selection of movies where art reflects the real situation inside the Soviet sport industry. Elite athletes are presented here as antiheroes with social adaptation problems; ad-ditionally, such issues as shamateurism are severely criticized. The conclusions are following: since the 1970s, sport films ceased to function as propaganda of fitness and recreational sport. On the contrary, elite sport (as an art branch), its representations in official arts and media jointly constructed the great “evan-gelical myth” about itself, which became the part of public consciousness. However, this myth had little to do with a new reality. Elite sport’s positive representation acted only as a propagandist tool that created a fictional social world. The existing social order’s irrationality was critically reflected only by the comedy genre.

Christoph Ransmayr’s 2006 novel Der fliegende Berg and Thomas Glavinic’s Das größere Wunder (published in 2013) confront very different ideas of mountaineering. Glavinic’s protagonist Jonas joins a commercial expedition to summit the world’s highest mountain. These highly criticized commercial endeavors are the opposite of Ransmayr’s scenario in which two brothers, Patrick and Liam, embark on a journey to a mythical peak – the last Himalayan mountain no one has ever summited before. The commercial sporting extravaganza and the ultimate independent adventure represent two extremes of a practice aimed at producing intense physical encounters with nature. Both novels confront the possibility of such encounters with an account of the life of their protagonists within a thoroughly modern world. In aligning biography with the ascent of the respective peak, the narratives present themselves as mediations between personal and planetary scales. Climate, thus, is not only present as an obstacle to overcome, but as a narrative device negotiating increasingly precarious relationships between humans and nature. In comparison with non-fictional mountaineering accounts these narratives reveal an understanding of climate which is not exhausted in a “weather-biased understanding of the atmosphere” (Fleming/Jankovic 2). Instead they resurrect apparently discarded notions of climate as a local and bodily entity. Using Fleming/Jankovic’s concept of Klima – an understanding of climate which combines natural and cultural facts – this paper investigates the methodological and narrative aspects of scaling, acclimatization and high-altitude in order to unearth the myth underlying these climatological tales and their (possibly) productive and destructive effects on current discourses on human-nature-relationships in the Anthropocene.

Ecology is the study of how all living things interact with their natural surroundings. It is the discipline that studies the harmony between nature and humans. It is based on a relationship with God because He created the Universe. The rhythm of nature has been a major source of inspiration for tribal culture and spiritual traditions in North East India for a very long time. Tribal ecological spirituality appears on some of the tenets of nature's behaviour. All of the resources they need for their livelihood are provided by nature. Because of their reliance on nature, they are able to live a life. It focuses on the metaphysical relationship between the universe and One Transcendent Reality. This research paper entitled “The Study of Ethnographic Substantiation of Tribal Eco Spiritualism in Mamang Dai's The Legends of Pensam” demonstrates the Adi people's attitude toward environmentally friendly living and their reliance on the supreme and the spiritual potential of humanity and its surroundings. It is mostly from the viewpoint of the Adi tribe in Arunachal Pradesh. Mamang Dai is a well-known tribal voice from North East India. Her fictional world is made up of the region's alluring scenery, magical experiences, colourful ethnography, mythology, folklore, and myths. Mamang Dai's decision to write about her tribal tales in the form of a novel is quite original. In a time when modern culture seeks explanations for every phenomenon, myths and tales demand readers' confidence. The myths, stories, beliefs, and rituals of a community remain in their collective unconscious and serve as a unifying force. In The Legends of Pensam, Mamang Dai does a wonderful job of conveying the myths, tales, beliefs, rites, and ceremonies of the Adis as their distinctive means of indicating. In recent years, the study of "Earth and nature-based spirituality" has spread across continents. Ecospirituality is linked to a variety of activities, including "mountaineering, new shamanic ritualizing, and states of consciousness." ( Taylor, 2001). Although there is a lot of difference, all proponents of eco spiritualism have a sense of connection and belonging to nature. The research work examines how ecospiritual themes as well as tribal spiritualism is supported ethnographically in The Legends of Pensam. The fiction is filled with shamanic and mountain ceremonies. It highlights how tribal communities strongly believe in the power of rituals. It also includes pahari pratha, or mountain rites and spiritual practices connected to North Eastern tribes as well as folklore and myths. Nowadays, people seek modernity. With all the amenities and technical advancements, man is frequently driven to seek for a specific order. Meanwhile myths and beliefs are frequently avoided in the midst of the hectic lifestyle. Humans are still in search of metaphysical and spiritual explanations for their existence. It can frequently assist them in coping with various life events. Human nature requires adhere to substantial spiritualism because they are dependent upon their own ethnography in the modern world. Spirituality is inner peace and it transfers from the outside to the inner self. The people of Adi face a lot of struggles and they are colonized by Western people. After encountering struggles, challenges, and colonialism, they retain their rituals, beliefs, myths and spiritual consciousness in their own inhabitants' land.