„Naprzeciw Tatr” — Gorce jako tatrzańskie peryferie?

The Tatra Mountains and the Gorce Mountains are mountain ranges lying next to each other. The widespread knowledge and popularity of the Tatra Mountains and the anthropopressure occurring in them indicate the dominant nature of these mountains in the consciousness of Polish society. The Gorce Mountains, meanwhile, are unknown to many, often overlooked and unpopular, both among tourists and writers. The peripheral nature of the Gorce region is related to the establishment of the center of Polish mountains in the Tatras. Their myth and majesty cast a shadow on the lower, unpopularized Gorce and contribute to creating a way of experiencing them. The article analyzes the relationship between the Gorce and the Tatra Mountains. The model of the center–periphery in the horizontal approach, proposed by Elżbieta Rybicka, was used to describe the phenomenon.

Zapach wojny i gór. Huculi i Huculszczyzna w międzywojennej literaturze polskiej o tematyce współczesnej (część II)

The article is the second part of a comprehensive study on representations of Hutsuls and the Hutsul region in the interwar Polish literature, which showed them during the First World War and the wars for the borders of the Second Polish Republic, as well as in the 1920s and 1930s. The article discuses, first and foremost, literary visions of Hutsuls and their native land in the third and fourth decade of the 20th century. The interwar Polish literature, which showed the Hutsul region “of today”, paid special attention to peacetime partnership of Poles and Hutsuls, which was to follow their wartime joint actions against Russians in the Eastern Carpathians in 1914–1915. It implied that this partnership was a result of a perfect match between the Polish national component and the Hutsul ethnic element. The article argues that Polish literature showed the compatibility of Poles and Hutsuls in the macro and micro dimensions. On the macro level, it was to be manifested, on the one hand, in the effective help of the Polish state institutions for Hutsuls, on the other hand, in the gratitude of Hutsuls for Poles. On the micro level, the Polish-Hutsul compatibility was to be manifested in friendly or intimate relations of representatives of both groups; relations which were invariably successful in spite of the fact that the Polish side dominated them and felt entitled to lead a civilization mission among Hutsuls. Such literary visions presented the Hutsul region as an integral part of the Second Polish Republic and its indigenous inhabitants as loyal citizens of the entire country. They also made it clear that Hutsuls affirmed Polishness and that Poles were welcomed and needed in the Hutsuls’s land.

Obraz przewodnika górskiego w literaturze romantycznej. Część I

The intensive development of tourism in the 19th century significantly contributed to the emergence of the guide’s profession. In earlier centuries, this feat was practiced by random people, often unqualified, but with time they became indispensable companions and patrons of tourists. Special qualities were required from mountain guides who, when introducing people to the mountains, had to show special qualities: responsibility, good knowledge of the topography of a given area, care, specific knowledge, as well as good physical condition. The job was professionalized the earliest in the Alps, but the process took place more or less at the same time in other European mountains, for example in the Karkonosze Mountains. It was much more difficult to hire an experienced guide in the Carpathians, where the leadership developed much later. Travel literature of the nineteenth century brought numerous accounts describing the relationship between the guide and the tourist as well as providing numerous realistic descriptions of the first to “hike in the mountains”. Due to the factual nature of this travel literature (diaries, memoirs, etc.), the pioneers of the leadership remained anonymous and found their place in the history of tourism and mountain climbing. This article omits the subject of Tatra guides, which will be the subject of a separate study.

Der Scheitel der Welt. Aline Valangin und das Onsernonetal

These considerations are devoted to literary pictures of the Onsernone Valley located on the Italian-Swiss border. It was here in the 1930s and 1940s that the Swiss writer Aline Valangin (1889– 1986) created an extraordinary oasis of freedom and peace in her estate in Comologno. She hosted famous figures such as Kurt Tucholsky, Elias Canetti, Ignazio Silone, or Wladimir Vogel, and provided shelter to many politically persecuted artists. The subject of detailed reflection is the question of the perception, experience and acquisition of the Ticino mountains both in works by Valangin and in biographical works about her; with a particular focus on narrative perspective — from the outside and the inside. Eveline Hasler in biographical novel Aline und die Erfindung der Liebe (2000) attempts to (re)construct an image of the Onsernone Valley as a specific “valley of poets”, presenting a subtle analysis of the interaction between the conservative inhabitants of the valley, attached to tradition, and the extravagant artists who found asylum and inspiration in the Ticino Alps. This novel is an example of a modern biography, which is characterized by narrative polyphony; the description of space becomes an important carrier of meanings and collective memory in the author’s concept. Aline Valangin sketches in her novels (Die Bargada, 1943 / Dorf an der Grenze, 1982) and short stories (Tessiner Erzählungen, 2018) an image of Onserone indigenous people’s everyday life in the thirties and forties, full of worries. Her stories include outsiders, misfits, social outcasts, guerrillas, smugglers, and exiles — and they all find haven in the Valley. Valangin’s works are also an important voice in the discussion of the essence of Swiss patriotism not only through strong criticism of Swiss immigration policy during World War II, but also by reflecting on the concept of the border as a place that unexpectedly proves to be a challenge and a particular kind of self-experience in the face of events that are tearing up the current existence.

Blicke von der Veranda: Luxustourismus in den Alpen der Jahrhundertwende

Grand hotels had first been a metropolitan phenomenon before they emerged in remote regions of the Alps between the 1880s and the 1930s. This essay explores how these semi-public spaces and early places of modernity engaged with alpine scenery and shaped the very industry of mountain tourism. It analyses the relationship between elite tourism and the natural and social environment of the Alps. The success of mountain grand hotels was tied to increasing industrialization and a new understanding of travel. Their thoughtful detachment from space, time, and society was an expression of a business as much as of social philosophy. Throughout the fin-de-siècle, mountains served as a backdrop for the narrative of the époque’s scientific and technical progress and became subject to rational interpretation and economic exploitation. Mountain grand hotels were not only a key component of tourism infrastructure, but also the bold expression of a presumptuous occupation of spaces set away for tourism. Natural space had widely been turned into social space for visual and leisurely consumption, raising questions of authority, priority, appropriation, and imposition. By mapping the perception of mountains along the history of mountain grand hotels, this essay studies the sites, gazes, and environments of mountain tourism at the fin-de-siècle. It examines how the history of the mountain grand hotel conflates with the forces of colonialism, and capitalism and showcases how these spaces reflect the socio-economic transformations that ultimately paved the way for mountain mass tourism.

Motyw gór w poezji Aleksandry Korpaczewskiej

The aim to the note is to examine two poems featuring the mountains — the Beskidy and the Pieniny ranges.Both poems — “Z gór” (From the mountains) and “Spowiedź Dunajca” (Confession of the Dunajec) — come from an 1872 volume, Oderwane nuty (Torn Notes) by a forgotten poet of the positivism era, Aleksandra Korpaczewska (1849–1872). The image of the mountains created by Korpaczewska testifies to the poet’s romantic inspirations and fascination with the natural world. The poetic vision of the scenery she describes features topographic and cultural realities; there are clear references to various sensations, which play a significant role in the experience of the mountains. Their varied beauty is presented by various stylistic means — especially numerous comparisons and anthropomorphisation. Given the forgotten status of both poems and their historical-literary value, it is worth bringing them back from obscurity and devoting more attention to them in the future.

Góry postępowe

The aim of the present article is to demonstrate that people who explore the mountains or have ties to the mountains are among those who bring progress or at least believe they do. The author also seeks to show that in many periods mountain treks had a rather significant social or religious dimension, and specific groups or classes becoming mountaineers often became a political matter. In order to substantiate the thesis the author uses a number of examples, moving non-chronologically from the twentieth century, especially its first half, through the second half of the nineteenth century, and ending with romanticism and the Enlightenment era. The examples illustrating the author’s thesis are limited territorially to Central Europe, mainly its part that was historically or still is today German-speaking.

O zakopiańskich rezydentkach

The residents of Zakopane are the group of permanent inhabitants who were not born in the Podhale region, but it was their choice to connect themselves to it. The formation of this group is the result of the social-demographic changes in the Tatra mountains at the beginning of the 20th century and in the interwar period. It is a group that is diversified and therefore difficult to define. It figures as a link between the highlanders who are ingrained into the space of Podhale and those who treat it in a pragmatic and utilitarian way. The residents constitute the cultural phenomenon present in literary works as well as in the cultural life of Zakopane during the end of 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The main subject of the article is a portrayal of the residents — historical figures and literary heroines — taking into account their functions in the society of Zakopane of those times: the groups which have been highlighted are schoolgirls, the women who provide accommodation to the tourists, and the organizers of literary saloons.