Survival in the Era of Chaos and in the Time of the Grand Collapse in Stanislaw Lem’s “Memoirs Found in a Bathtub” Cover Image

Przeżyć w epoce „chaotyckiej” i w czasach „Wielkiego Rozpadu” w „Pamiętniku znalezionym w wannie” Stanisława Lema
Survival in the Era of Chaos and in the Time of the Grand Collapse in Stanislaw Lem’s “Memoirs Found in a Bathtub”

Author(s): Agnieszka Gajewska
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, History of the Holocaust, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Stanislaw Lem; “Memoirs Found in a Bathtub”; Lviv; memory studies; science fiction

Summary/Abstract: The paper interprets Stanislaw Lem’s novel “Memoirs Found in a Bathtub” in the context of the writer’s experience of the occupation. Drawing from the information provided in the correspondence between Lem and Michael Kandel, the author points out the autobiographical allusions contained in the novel. The author also points to the references to the period during which the writer was hiding on the “Aryan side.” The author asks questions about historical topics relating to the everyday life of people living on “Aryan papers” during the occupation. Science fiction staffage and vague allusions to historical events in Lem’s prose have been read as personal, generational and family traumas.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 150-162
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Polish
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