Wertykalna izolacja. Górska proza Tadeusza Piotrowskiego [Vertical Isolation. Mountaineering Writings of Tadeusz Piotrowski]

The article is concerned with the writings of the Polish mountaineer, Tadeusz Piotrowski. The author considers the relationship between the experiences of vertical space, plot and subjectivity. He analyses Piotrowski’s writing, in an attempt at identifying characteristic elements of the climber’s discourse in the context of sincerity and autobiographical narrative. Tadeusz Piotrowski’s story is defined by modernity, accumulating in ‘the Self ’ the subsequent paradoxes resulting from contradictions within key concepts of truth, authenticity and sincerity. The climber’sdiscourse tries to reconcile the desire to repeat the vertical movement within textual representation, and the idiomatic expression of the subject. The text exposes the paradoxical status of the autobiography situated beyond truth and falsehood, while, at the same time, remaining the most effective tool for communicating mountaineering experiences