The essay proposes a new approach to the history of Soviet and Polish science fiction in the 1960s which sees it as a Jewish intellectual space and art form. It concentrates on the figure of Stanislaw Lem and his enormous impact on Soviet science fiction authors. The essay argues that Lem should be understood as
a Jewish writer and thinker not merely because of his biography and World War II/Holocaust contexts, but,
first and foremost, because of his philosophy and worldview. The essay offers a number of readings of Lem’s
texts that expose his Jewish philosophy, and shows how the Soviet authors, such as the Strugatsky brothers, Rafail Nudelman, and Ariadna Gromova, responded to Lem through their own works, in the case of the Strugatskys and Gromova, and the correspondence with Lem and essays on him, in the case of Nudelman.
Ultimately, the essay argues for this material as a pivotal missing link in the Jewish intellectual and literary
history in the 20th century.

The article proposes a model that allows a new observation of the texts of Russian-Israeli literature as a representation of the complex psycho-cultural processes of repatriation. The model is based on the philosophical-anthropological theories of Rene Girard and Eric Gans. Its application seems to be useful, in particular, in the study of the literature of aliyah of the 1970s, as well as the literature of “transit” — authors who left Israel after some time. As an example, the article considers the case of Zinoviy Zinik basing upon the material of some of his works.

The paper is devoted to the study of the organization of artistic time and space in the novel by Nekod Singer Bilety v kasse. Bioavtographiya (Tickets at the box office. Bioautography) on the basis of modern literary concepts that develop the theory of the chronotope of Mikhail Bakhtin. The work distinguishes four levels of narration presented in the work under study, and the four chronotopes corresponding to them, which differ in relation to reality, time and space. They also differ in having the main character in each chronotope. In addition, the paper discusses the interaction of these chronotopes coexisting in one literary text, and their influence on its structure.

The paper deals with the analysis of a work by one of the precursors of the new Jewish literature of 1835—1917. The characters and the narrator himself were shown as the representatives of the saved, traditional culture of the early 1900’s with their traditions, behaviour, dialect and habits in the specific environment and everyday situations. The writer presents the picture of that world in a very consistent and precise way together with its characteristic and unique features. These features are analysed in this paper. Thus the selected parts have been taken into consideration. Those parts describe various aspects of the Jewish existence and they have been divided into groups. The parameters of various situations and features which are presented in those groups, (have been) described from the point of view ot the semantics and (have been) formalized as the attributes referring to the general aspects (not only of Jewish character), as well as those very specific ones (typically Jewish) and those subjective in character (referring to individuals). The ones of the subjective character are the starting point of creating the general and complete picture of the Jews and the Jewish nation with the associated attributes. These attributes show the Jewish towns and communities. 22 parameters have been selected and put in the hierarchical order, then illustrated with some examples and finally they have been described as some conceptual constructions which reflect the specificity of the consciousness of the mental culture presented above.

The article aims at showing that the role of a woman in both the ancient Israelite community and the biblical text — the Book of Judith — was essential. As Carol Meyers, a feminist scholar, and Waldemar Chrostowski, a Catholic theologian, claim, this role was crucial in social, economic and religious life. Thus, it may be indicated that in both discourses one may find some common ground. While searching for some feminist elements in everyday life of the ancient Israel and the Bible, one should bear in mind the inadequacy of the contemporary feminist terms to describe ancient Israelite women's lives. Nevertheless, it is worth considering whether the definition of feminism would be rational in the ancient Israelite society if it had been known in those times. Taking into account the definition of feminism as a social movement developed by Kazmierz Ślęczka, the author concludes that the discrimination of women did not take place in those times. At the same time, she notices that by using the contemporary language, the heroine of the Book of Judith may represent the assumptions of new feminism as postulated by John Paul the Second.

The study touches on the possibilities of creative writing with the theme of World War II and the Holocaust. The focus is on the icebreaker, a short exercise designed to sensitise students to the topic itself, as well as group collaboration. The theme of the icebreaker is the fate of Hitler's dog, Blondie. Students are asked to imagine waking up in her place one day. In this article, we analyse the written work of both Czech and foreign (South Korean) students.

-