Fantastyka naukowa i trauma: konstelacje w powieści Solaris Stanisława Lema

Abstract

The paper offers a new reading of Stanisław Lem’s most popular novel Solaris. The text is interpreted as a literary representation of trauma. The notion of trauma is understood in two ways. On the one hand, it refers to the tradition of the gothic novel and its staging of the uncanny which causes disbelief in the reality. In Lem’s Solaris this complexity is transferred into the context of science fiction. On the other hand, trauma is a key motif in the novel and indicates the past experiences or the present states of mind the protagonists have not come to terms with. The aim of this article is to explain how science fiction serves as a literary disguise for the representation of those traumatic experiences which cannot be handled on the ground of traditional psychoanalytical strategies for overcoming trauma. Solaris thus undermines basic assumptions of psychoanalysis. However, the novel is not a mere illustration of theoretical concepts or a work based upon Lem’s own personal wartime experiences in Lwów, though his biographical background may have influenced the writer’s depiction of the situation on the Solaris station. The novel should rather be treated as a critical assessment of the contemporary technological civilisation, which enables man to conquer the cosmos but is also guilt-ridden and burdened with a past, still haunting the protagonists even in the depths of the universe.