Materializing Trauma: Research Station as a Non-Site of Memory in Stanisław Lem's 'Solaris'

• In Event: Memory and Non-Memory in Polish 20th Century Literature

Abstract

In Stanislaw Lem’s novel Solaris, on an alien planet covered entirely by a water-like substance, a group of scientists attempt to communicate with the sentient ocean. In response to one of their experiments, the ocean uses the scientists' memories to materialize people they would rather forget. The scientists don’t know the purpose of these apparitions, nevertheless, they perceive them as hostile. In my presentation, I will discuss the relationship between memory, forgetting, and violence. I argue that the research station on Solaris is conceived as a non-site of memory, a term proposed by Roma Sendyka, an unmarked, and yet haunted by trauma, place of violence inflicted on human and nonhuman others.

Author

• Katarzyna Majchrowicz-Wolny, U of Illinois at Chicago