People of the mountains in the eyes of Polish exiles and travellers to the Caucasus

Abstract

The image of the highlander in the Caucasian exile literature, although strongly marked by a romantic tendency to idealise the “sons (daughters) of the mountains”, is slightly different from analogous portrayals known from the Polish “Alpine” or “Tatra” (“Podhale”) literature. Above all, the portrait is by no means uniform (rather, it is marked by ambivalence); it is presented in various poetics and subordinated to various conventions: from biblical stylisations or idealising stylisations inspired by Rousseauism and Romantic anthropology, through verism to humoristic and ironic approaches. Thus the writings of the Caucasian exile writers are marked by as much reverence for the ethos of the indomitable, proud and free highlanders as by an awareness of the uncertain future of this noble model in the face of mass extermination of the indigenous population of the Caucasus and the actions of the aggressor, which were conducive to its moral degeneration.