Vacuous Intertextuality? Stanisław Lem’s Memoirs Found in a Bathtub and Its Intertextual Relations

Abstract

The article discusses intertextuality in Stanisław Lem’s novel, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (1961). An analysis of Memoirs discovers references to numerous works of literature (Kafka, Borges, Gombrowicz, Mrożek, Chekhov, Gogol, Shakespeare, Mickiewicz, Ray Bradbury, Genet, and Jan Potocki, among others), philosophy (Cassirer, Peirce, Lévinas), religion, popular culture, and unwritten lore (the Bible, Greek mythology, songs, proverbs, aphorisms, rhymes, and toasts). However, careful examination reveals that it is extremely difficult to draw the line between connections intended by the author and those which are accidental or read into the text by critics or readers. That is because in Memoirs, Lem designed a work which is intertextually open, capable of establishing a virtually infinite number of relations with other texts and contexts, and encouraging its reader to recognize all possible links. Intertextual references operate here collectively rather than as relationships with individual works. Locating Memoirs in a vast, practically unlimited intertextual space does not lead to specific, premeditated meanings, but rather serves to multiply potential senses. In the article, this intertextual strategy is paired with Lem’s theory that the meaning of a literary work is unstable and is fully developed in the process of individual reception.