L150fall00

LITERATURE 150: MOUNTAINEERING LITERATURE

Fall 2000

Professor Kenneth Surin

114 Art Museum Building, East Campus

Tel# 684-4364

e-mail: kenneth.surin@duke.edu

http://www.duke.edu/~ksurin/

Office Hours: please sign up on sheets on my office door or arrange a time

OBJECTIVES

The class will be run as a seminar, though in the first part of each class the instructor will speak of the salient features of the topic(s) set for that particular day. A lot of emphasis is placed on discussing the details and intricacies of the readings, so they must be done. As in every subject, there is some terminology to be learned. It may take you a week or so to become familiar with most of it, so be patient with yourself. You must always see me if you have any concerns. The books for this course can be purchased from the Textbook Store in the Bryan Center (tel: 684-6793).

READINGS

The following texts will be read:

Blum, Arlene Annapurna: A Woman's Place

Boardman, Peter & Tasker, Joe The Boardman-Tasker Omnibus

Buhl, Hermann Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage

Child, Greg Climbing: The Complete Reference to Rock, Ice and Indoor Climbing (As the title indicates, this book is a reference work and can be consulted as required by class members)

Coffey, Maria Fragile Edge

Curran, Jim High Achiever: The Life and Climbs of Chris Bonnington

Herzog, Maurice Annapurna: The First 8,000 Metre Peak

Hunt, John The Ascent of Everest

Ortner, Sherry Life and Death on Mt. Everest: Sherpas and Himalayan Mountaineering

Patey, Tom One Man's Mountains

Pritchard, Paul The Totem Pole

Rébuffat, Gaston Starlight and Storm: The Conquest of the Great North Faces of the Alps

Rose, David & Douglas, Ed Regions of the Heart: the Triumph and Tragedy of Alison Hargreaves

Simpson, Joe Touching the Void

REQUIREMENTS:

You are reminded that a sound attendance record is a requirement for the satisfactory completion of all courses at Duke University.

Short Paper

One 8-9 page paper in which you address the following question:

Is it a simplification to contrast the mountaineering ethos of Buhl, Pritchard, Rébuffat, Patey, and Tasker (lightweight expeditions, few porters, individualistic, etc.) with that of Herzog and Hunt (large military-style expeditions, 'attacking' the mountain, top-down leadership, patriotism, etc.)? Where does the American Women's expedition to Annapurna fit into this argument? There is a substantial literature on patriotism, leadership, the history of mountaineering, the Sherpa peoples, politics and history of the Indian subcontinent, etc., that you may want to consult.

This paper will constitute 20% of the final grade. It is due on Thursday October 12.

Term Paper

One 20-page research paper chosen from the following topics (this will constitute 70% of the final grade):

Using Jim Curran's biography of Chris Bonington, and consulting Bonington's recent autobiography (Boundless Horizons, not on our reading list), determine what the differences are between their respective conceptions of the Bonington persona. It will not be sufficient merely to list the differences. You should also indicate which features of the Bonington persona in Curran's book are overlooked or deemphasized in the autobiography and vice versa. There is a substantial literature on autobiography as a literary form, and you will be expected to engage with some of this literature. Students deciding to do this topic should consult the professor on this literature.

Sherry Ortner (Life and Death on Mt. Everest) advances the thesis that modern mountaineers are romantic anti-modernists. Make an assessment of this thesis using all the texts we have read and any others you consider relevant. Is it adequate to account for the complexity of mountaineering as a cultural phenomenon? You should consult the literature in cultural studies and cultural anthropology dealing with modernity, modernization, and their cultural implications in giving your answer.

Why should the great female mountaineer Alison Hargreaves be judged harshly for 'taking unacceptable risks' while her male counterparts are treated differently (consider the case of Maurice Herzog, Joe Simpson, Paul Pritchard and others)? What would be the form of a feminist critique of the (seemingly) overwhelmingly male mountaineering ethos (you can refer here to the books by Arlene Blum and Maria Coffey)? In answering, engage with the substantial literature in feminist theory, the sociology of sports, and the theory of identity formation in social psychology.

The 1996 Everest season was marked by the disaster chronicled by Jon Krakauer in his well-known Into Thin Air. Using his book, and also consulting the first-hand accounts of others on the mountain at that time (the texts by Boukreev and de Waal, Beck Weathers, Lena Nielsen-Gammelgaard, Göran Kropp, et al.) Deal with one or more of the following issues: the commercialization and 'touristification' of high-altitude climbing, the psychological and cultural dimensions of risk-taking, 'heroism' and bravery.

Note: students have to notify the professor of their choice of topic before going on Thanksgiving Break.

Email Discussion

This will begin immediately, when the professor will collect email addresses from all students and make up a group list (this list will include my email address). When I make my first mailing, save the list in your address book, and mail your discussion contributions to each member of the class along the lines specified below:

Before each class meeting, i.e. Monday midnight (latest) for the Tuesday class, Wednesday midnight (latest) for the Thursday class, all students have to mail to the class list a 12-15 sentence email document (no attachments!) containing their comments and observations on the reading for the next day, questions they think are posed by that reading, positions they want to take on one or more of the issues posed by that reading, etc. This will constitute 10% of the final grade. Failure to turn in a piece by the required time will be penalized by a deduction of 1% from the final grade for each piece not turned in.

CLASS SCHEDULE

August 29 Introductions

Aug 31 Ortner, Life and Death, Chs. 1-5.

Sept 5 Ortner, Life and Death, Ch. 6-end.

Pritchard, Totem Pole, Chs. 1-5

Sept 7 Pritchard, Totem Pole, Ch. 6-end

Sept 12 Herzog, Annapurna, Chs. I-VII

Sept 14 Herzog, Annapurna, Chs. VIII-end.

Sept 19 Hunt, Ascent to Everest

Sept 21 No Class

Sept 26 Buhl, Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage

Sept 28 Rébuffat, Starlight and Storm