View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by OTHES Dissertation Titel der Dissertation The Presentation of the Character of the Climber and Climbing Philosophy in North American and British Texts Verfasserin Lidiya Wukowits angestrebter akademischer Grad Doktor der Philosophie (Dr. phi.) Wien, 2009 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 092 343 Dissertationsgebiet lt. Studienblatt: 343 Anglistik und Amerikanistik Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Waldemar Zacharasiewicz i Contents Part I Overview Introduction 1 General Aspects 3 Mountains in Literature 10 History of Mountaineering 28 Mountaineering Fiction 38 • The Reasons for Climbing and Writing About It 41 The Presentation of Character. An Outline 43 • Climbing Philosophy 48 • Spiritual Corruption 49 • The Meaning of Climbing 49 Part II The Presentation of the Character of the Climber in Classic Mountaineering Literature Upon That Mountain. Eric Shipton • The Book 51 • The Landscape of Climbing. The Sublime 52 • The Presentation of Character. Climbing Philosophy 53 High Adventure. Edmund Hillary • The Book 58 • The Landscape of Climbing. The Sublime 58 • The Presentation of Character. Climbing Philosophy 60 The Ascent of Rum Doodle. W.E. Bowman • The Novel 62 • The Landscape of Climbing. The Sublime 63 • The Presentation of Character. Climbing Philosophy 64 Part III The Presentation of the Character of the Climber in Modern Climbing Literature Solo Faces. James Salter The Novel 69 The Plot 71 The Landscape of Climbing 73 • The Sublime 77 The Presentation of Character 79 • The Protagonist 80 • Other Climbing Characters 89 • Susceptibility to Superstitions 92 ii Climbing philosophy 94 • Spiritual corruption 96 The Meaning of Climbing 101 The Ascent. Jeff Long The Novel 103 The Plot 105 The Landscape of Climbing 107 • The Sublime 117 The Presentation of Character 121 • The Protagonist 121 • Other Climbing Characters: Daniel 125 • Susceptibility to Superstitions 130 Climbing Philosophy 134 • Spiritual Corruption 136 The Meaning of Climbing 142 Into Thin Air. Jon Krakauer The Book 145 The Landscape of Climbing 148 • The Sublime 157 The Presentation of Character 160 • The Author and Other Climbers 160 • Susceptibility to Superstitions 166 Climbing Philosophy 168 • Spiritual Corruption 171 The Meaning of Climbing 174 The Climb. Tragic Ambitions on Everest. Anatoly Boukreev, W. DeWalt The Book 176 The Landscape of Climbing 178 • The Sublime 179 The Presentation of Character 181 • The Author and Other Climbers 181 • Susceptibility to Superstitions 184 Climbing Philosophy 186 • Spiritual Corruption 186 The Meaning of Climbing 189 Part IV The Presentation of the Character of the Climber and Climbing Philosophy in Women’s Climbing Literature Climbing Women 190 iii One Green Bottle. Elizabeth Coxhead The Novel 192 The Plot 193 The Landscape of Climbing. The Sublime 194 The Presentation of Character 197 • The Protagonist 197 • Other Climbing Characters 200 Climbing Philosophy 202 The Meaning of Climbing 203 Beyond the Mountain. Elizabeth Arthur The Novel 204 The Plot 205 The Landscape of Climbing. The Sublime 206 The Presentation of the Character 209 • The Protagonist 209 • Other Climbing Characters 210 Climbing Philosophy 212 The Meaning of Climbing 214 Part V Presentation of the Character of the Climber and Climbing Philosophy: New Tendencies Gay Mountaineering Literature Todhra. Dennis Gray The Novel 217 The Plot 219 The Landscape of Climbing. The Sublime 221 The Presentation of Character 224 • The Protagonist 224 • Other Climbing Characters 227 Climbing Philosophy 230 The Meaning of Climbing 231 Part VI Summary 232 Bibliography 237 Index 243 Abstract (English) 247 Abstract (Deutsch) 249 Lebenslauf 251 1 Overview Introduction The topic “The Presentation of the Character of the Climber and Climbing Philosophy” is a result of my long-time interest in the subject of mountaineering/climbing and has been inspired by a considerable amount of fiction and non-fiction written about this activity. The research is an attempt to provide an overview of genres and types as well as to offer a comparison of themes and characters existent in mountaineering fiction and non-fiction. The focus of this study will be the presentation of the character of the mountaineer and climbing philosophy. The introductory section of the thesis will be devoted to an overview of existing studies of travel literature related to mountaineering and climbing, to the presentation of the key terms and issues and background information on mountaineering. The main part of the thesis is divided into four sections, all of which will deal with the comparison of actual mountaineering accounts and mountaineering fiction in terms of the presentation of the character of a climber and climbing philosophy, the construction of the character, and the transformation it has gone through in the last hundred years. The first section of this part deals with the classics of mountaineering literature dating back to roughly the first half of the 20th century. The second section focuses on two fictional and two non-fictional works of the end of the 20th century and constitutes the core of the thesis. The third section offers an overview of women’s climbing literature. In its general tendencies it has followed the course of the development seen in men’s mountaineering literature but it also has additional aspects considered on the basis of two fictional works. The fourth section presents the new tendencies in climbing literature and discusses the first example of gay mountaineering fiction. The last part of the research draws conclusions and summarises the findings of this study. Within the scope of this thesis the extent to which fiction draws on mountaineering history and personal accounts will be considered. I will analyse the motives for writing mountaineering fiction and non-fiction and offer evidence that personal experiences in mountaineering oftentimes are a strong stimulus for writing as a means to re-examine experiences, to revise preconceptions, to address the feeling of 2 guilt, to remember people lost, finally, to explain one’s feelings to the world, and thus, to become more accepted. Among the objectives of the thesis are the wish to place mountaineering fiction in the context of travel literature and to try to define mountaineering fiction and to examine where the line between fact and fiction can be drawn in mountaineering literature. This research aims at the analysis of the themes and characters surfacing in mountaineering literature and their shifts in the course of time. The thesis will illustrate that both fiction and non-fiction are oftentimes written to come to terms with one’s own experiences. The role of the landscape in the presentation of characters will be studied because a ‘foreign’ setting is one of the essentials of mountaineering writing as it emphasises (or reveals) the traits not so obvious in an ordinary location. Many a time the places dealt with in both climbing accounts and fiction are only a few miles away from the common world, yet both emotional and physical factors create an unfamiliar setting. I will try to find reasons for somebody to trade a comfortable sofa and a cup of coffee with a good book for the discomfort of a tent in the middle of a snow storm and an option of paying with one’s life for a weird addiction. Additionally I will examine the presentation of the climber in mountaineering literature and offer evidence that there exists a certain universality in the presentation of a climber usually shown as a representative of one of several categories: • a gentleman-mountaineer, a heroic figure, • an average climber who will never develop into a prodigy climber, • a prodigy climber, a cheerful vagabond, and an outlaw to some extent, • a woman who is a man’s match in climbing. The thesis will analyse the meaning of the climb and will show that climbing may be an attempt to escape from the world, a quest for enlightenment, a metaphor for success and achievement in the climber’s life. The study will mostly, but not exclusively, deal with long texts (novels, personal accounts), but will also include the examination of short texts (short stories and articles). The main focus of the study will rest on the individual, but as an integral part of a group. The research will be based on British and North American writings. 3 General Aspects Travel literature, both factual and fictional, has always excited much curiosity and attention. It gives the possibility of casting a glance at places one has never been to or of learning about experiences one has never had (and sometimes is not so eager to acquire). Yet there are fewer and fewer places that have remained unvisited, for nowadays possibilities for travel are infinitely greater than ever before. The social value of travel and the motives that lie behind it have changed. The last several decades have emphasised the distinction between travel as a modern activity and the functions it traditionally assumed in other historical and cultural contexts (the majority of travels was motivated by geopolitical, religious, military and economic factors). In the course of the 20th century the number of unexplored places decreased drastically,1 yet the number of people undertaking some sort of travel increased, thus it became a challenge to sustain the myth of the brave, undaunted traveller. Therefore, in this post-exploration age (see Cocker 144) there has been a tendency to attribute more importance not to the destination of travel, but rather to its mode, the aspect that nowadays tends to be pushed to extremes. The term “post-exploration age,” as used by Percy G. Adams in his Travel Literature and the Evolution of the Novel (82), encompasses the experiences of not a well-prepared and knowledgeable explorer but rather alludes to the experiences of an average individual without any special training in languages spoken in the visited locations, in handling pack animals or negotiating any ‘explorer-necessary equipment.’ The post-exploration age is characterised by a quest for personal experiences (valuable for an individual) rather than for universal knowledge (valuable for a country or humanity, for example).