Rhetoric of a Scientific Discovery in “Głos Pana” (“His Master’s Voice”) by Stanisław Lem Cover Image

Retoryka odkrycia naukowego w „Głosie Pana” Stanisława Lema
Rhetoric of a Scientific Discovery in “Głos Pana” (“His Master’s Voice”) by Stanisław Lem

A Half Century from the Novel’s First Release

Author(s): Artur Żywiołek
Subject(s): Studies of Literature
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Stanisław Lem; Lem's “His Master’s Voice”; mystery of existence; literary portrait of a sciencific discovery

Summary/Abstract: The paper attempts to interpret “Głos Pana” (“His Master’s Voice”) by Stanisław Lem in a rhetorical perspective. Published in a tough—not only in Poland—year 1968, the novel is generally regarded by critics as a rare example of “literary portrait of a scientific discovery.” Also, as Jerzy Jarzębski accurately points out, it is “one of the most personal books by Lem.” To be more specific, “His Master’s Voice” is a literary portrait of various conditions in which a scientific theory is developed. The novel follows the twist and turns of a group of scientists, politicians, and military men who are concerned in the works of deciphering a neutrino signal, a letter from the stars’, called His Master’s Voice. Lem’s story is at the same time a record of a cognitive failure and insufficiency of rhetoric tools towards the mystery of existence.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 91-111
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: Polish