Individual, history and space: „The Magellanic Cloud” by Stanisław Lem in the context of changes in literary consciousness of the thaw era

Abstract

The article is an attempt to read the novel of Stanisław Lem The Magellanic Cloud [Obłok Magellana] in the context of processes characteristic of the beginnings of the post-Stalinist thaw, associated with attempts to discuss with the dogmas of socialist realism. Three main aspects of the novel can be indicated in which there are traces of this discussion. Firstly, in placing the problems of the human individual in the center of the work’s interest — their psyche, feelings and reactions. Secondly, in the revision of Marxist philosophy. Thirdly, in reaching for the achievements of exis-tentialism. Such an interpretation of The Magellanic Cloud allows for its inclusion in the literature of the early thaw stage, in which socialist realist elements were combined with new, doctrine-disin-tegrating threads.