Stanislaw Lem, the Strugatsky brothers, Rafail Nudelman and Ariadna Gromova: On the Poetics and History of Jewish Science Fiction in the Soviet and Polish Contexts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31261/IR.2023.11.01Keywords:
Lem, Strugatskys, trauma, science fiction, JewishAbstract
The essay proposes a new approach to the history of Soviet and Polish science fiction in the 1960s which sees it as a Jewish intellectual space and art form. It concentrates on the figure of Stanislaw Lem and his enormous impact on Soviet science fiction authors. The essay argues that Lem should be understood as
a Jewish writer and thinker not merely because of his biography and World War II/Holocaust contexts, but,
first and foremost, because of his philosophy and worldview. The essay offers a number of readings of Lem’s
texts that expose his Jewish philosophy, and shows how the Soviet authors, such as the Strugatsky brothers, Rafail Nudelman, and Ariadna Gromova, responded to Lem through their own works, in the case of the Strugatskys and Gromova, and the correspondence with Lem and essays on him, in the case of Nudelman.
Ultimately, the essay argues for this material as a pivotal missing link in the Jewish intellectual and literary
history in the 20th century.
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