STANISLAV LEM'S NOVEL «EDEN» THROUGH THE PRISM OF NIETZSCHE'S SUPERHUMAN

Abstract

The development of scientific and technological progress and attempts to reflect it in science fiction in the twentieth century increasingly attracted the attention of professional literary critics and often became the subject of research by historians and literary theorists. The researchers were concerned with the origin of the phenomenon of fantastic literature, its limits and possibilities. Is science fiction really a feature of the twentieth century? Polish literary critics answer this question unequivocally: science fiction has always existed in literature. An analysis of literature in search of the beginning of fantasy leads to the conclusion that the use of elements of the fantastic, mystical, magical, folklore, divine, and other things is the component that gave rise to the formation of certain criteria of fantastic literature (science fiction, fantasy, and horror literature), the branching of genres and subgenres, the highlighting of special features of characters and situations, the outlining of a range of issues, etc. in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
In the context of the development of science fiction literature in the twentieth century, certain philosophical trends played an important role, as their influence covered virtually all spheres of human life. A significant figure of the late nineteenth century was Friedrich Nietzsche, who developed the idea of the death of God and the place of man, or rather a superhuman who could become godlike and take the place of the Creator. Science fiction writers were eager to explore this topic in their works. In Polish literature, it was Stanisław Lem who created a certain ideal and example of depicting certain problems through the prism of science fiction.