Mountain pathways: Alpine and Tatra impressions in nineteenth-century literature

Abstract

The author of the article analyses travelogues associated with the Alps and the Tatras by Polish nineteenth-century writers. She seeks to demonstrate the extent to which both the Alps and the Tatras — often appearing in Polish literature as a clear motif or theme — were idealised. The main source material analysed by the author comprises works by Juliusz Słowacki, Seweryn Goszczyński, Adam Asnyk, Maria Konopnicka, Bolesław Prus and Jan Kasprowicz. In her analysis the author stresses the interpretation of aquatic motifs associated with the mountain landscape, particularly lakes, which often seem to link the mountains to the sky. A comparison of the various ways of presenting the mountain landscape in works by Polish authors originating in various literary periods has revealed a range of literary idealisation processes.