ANTONI SMUSZKIEWICZ THE CATASTROPHE THEME IN POLISH SCIENCE FICTION, 1918-39 The period between the world wars brought the rise and development of SF in Poland. In this period the new literary genre concentrated mainly on two themes, the "miraculous invention" and the future. One of the main themes in the novels on the future was the catastrophe. This was, however, part and parcel of a broader catastrophic trend of the whole Polish popular literature or paraliterature of those twenty years. The category "popular literature" contains the literary texts not included in "high literature" for sociological or aesthetic reasons. The basic difference between these texts and "high quality" literature is materialized on the level of social reception where it brings about an opposition between literary pro- duction for the masses and that directed toward an "educated" reader. When- ever an author comes up to and satisfies the expectations of a mass readership, popular literature emerges. In this type of literature, the plot is of paramount importance. Next, the theme is basic for a classification because it decides on the choice of the whole set of means of expression, didactic content, current myths, complica- tions in the plot, and characters. This type of literary production expresses the problems and obsessions which have been suppressed in "high" literature. Like Marc Angenot, I would not treat popular literature (or paraliterature) as a form of degraded literature, but rather as a distinct phenomenon which has links with high literature.11 The "catastrophism" of the interwar period had its roots in a belief that contemporary civilization was in crisis: it had reached the peak of its develop- ment and was gradually declining. The atmosphere of decline was especially strong in the 1930s. However, the first signs of unrest could be noticed already in the 1920s in works ranging from the most outstanding ones like Witkiewicz's Insatiability (1930) to the "gutter romance."2 There were, in fact, different 1. Cf. Marc Angenot, Le Roman populaire. Recherches en paralittiratures, (Montreal: Les Presses de l'Univ6rsit6 du Quebec, 1975), and the comment of Barbara Labuda, "Po- wiesc popularna w koncepcji Marca Angenot" (Marc Angenot'sConcept of Popular Novel), Litteraria, 10 (1978), 195; and Tzvetan Todorov, Typologie du roman policier, in his Poétique de la Prose (Paris: 1971). - 2. The most representative interwar SF novels dealing with the theme of the catastro- phe were: Boguslaw Adamowicz, Tryumf idttych (The Triumph of the Yellow Men) reasons, different means of expression, and different artistic shapes for the catastrophic mood. In the 1920s the catastrophic visions of worlddisaster in the novels developed out of general threats to European civilization, rooted in decline trends of the end of the nineteenth century, and in the threat from the Russian Revolution. In the 1930s the fears-expressed mainly in poetry- arose from judgments based on the contemporary international situation. The great economic crisis and, foremost of all, the rising importance of fascism be- came the reasons for gloomy thoughts about the real threat of a new war.33 (Warszawa: Gubrynowicz and Schmidt, 1920); Stefan Barszczewski, Czandu: Powiesc z XXII wieku (Chandu: A Novel from the 22nd Century) (Warszawa: Gebethner and Wolff, 1925); Jerzy Braun, "Biaiy czy zótly? Powiesc" (White or Yellow? A Novel), Swiatowid, Nos. 13-48 (1926); idem, Kiedy ksigiyc untiera: Fantastyczna powiesc z žycia i7iieszkaizcbw drugiego globu (The Moon Dies: A Fantastic Novel from the Life of the Inhabitants of another Globe) (Krakow, 1925); Bruno Jasienski, Pale Paryz (I Am Burning Paris) (Warszawa: Roj, 1929: 1st ed., Moscow, 1929); Roman Jaworski, Wesele hrabiego Orgaza: Powiesc z pogranicza dwoch rzeczywistosci (Count Orgaz's Wedding: A Novel from the Border of Two Realities) (Warszawa: F. Hoesick, 1925); Tadeusz Kon- czynski, Koniec s:viata (The End of the World) (Warszawa, 1921): Jalu Kurek, S.O.S. (Zbaa� nasze dusze!) (S.O.S. [Save Our Souls|) (Krakow: Zwrotnica, 1927); Jan 'Lada, Antychrost: Opowiesc z ostatnich dni swiata (The Antichrist: A Tale from the Last Days of the World) (Poznan: Ksiegarnia Swietego Wojciecha, 1921); Waclaw Niezabitowski, ffuragan od WschoJu (The Hurricane from the East) (Warszawa: Strzelczyk and Kasi- nowski, 1928); item, Ostatni na Ziemi: Powieie z niedalekiej przyszlosci (The Last Man on the Earth: A Novel from the Near Future) (Warszawa: Strzelczyk and K�sinowski, 1928); Michat Rusinek, Bunt w krainie rttaszyn (Revolt in the Country of Machines) (Krakow: Biblioteka Premiowa, 1928); Antoni Stonimski, Dwa kOl1ce swiata (Two Ends of the World) (Warszawa: J. Przeworski, 1937); Mieczyslaw Smolarski, Miasto Šwiatl'osci: Powiei6 z dni przysztych (The City of Brilliance: A Novel of Future Days) (Poznan: Ksiegarnia Swigtego Wojciecha, 1924); Stanistaw Witkiewicz (pseud. Witkacy), Niena- sycenie (Insatiability) (Warszawa: Dom KsiazkiPolskiej, 1930);idem,Pozegnaniejesieni (A Farewell to Autumn) (Warszawa: F. Hoesick, 1927). 3. On the catastrophic in Polish literature, see: Bozena Danek-Wojnowska, "Z zagad- nien Witkiewiczowskiego katastrofizmu" (On the Problems of the Catastrophic in Wit- kacy), in Alina Brodzka and Zbigniew Zabicki, eds., Z problemdw literatury polskiej XX wieku (On the Problems of Twentieth-Century Polish Literature) (Warszawa: Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1965), I1; Krzysztof Dybciak, "Poezja mitu katastroficznego" (The Poetry of the Catastrophic Myth), Twórczosé, 3 (1974); Tadeusz Bujnicki and Ta- deusz Kfiak, eds., Katastrofizm i awangarda (The Catastrophic and the Avant-Garde) (Ka- towice: Uniwersytet glqski, 1979); Andrzej Kijowski, "Milczenie katastrofisty" (The Si- lence of the Catastrophic Man), in his Miniatury krytyczne (Critical Miniatures) (War- szawa: Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1961); Andrzej Konkowski, "Dancing i jego fikcje" (Dancing and Its Fictions), Miesiecznik Literacki, 12 (197 1); Janusz Kfyszak, Ka- tastrofizm ocalaigcy (The Saving Catastrophic) (Torun: Uniwersytet im. Miko3�aja Koper- nika, 1978); Jerzy Kwiatkowski, "Od katastrofizmu solarnego do synow sl'onica" (From the Solar Catastrophic to the Sons of the Sun), in Maria Podraza-Kwiatkowska, ed., Ato- dopolski swiat wyobraini (The Imaginative World of "Young Poland") (Krakow: Wy- dawnictwo Literackie, 1977); Maigorzata Szpakowska, Swiatopoglad Stan istawa Ignacego Witkiewicza (The World View of Witkacy) (Wroclaw: Ossolineum, 1976); Wieshw Pawet .