Published : 2026-04-01

Polish Literature in Exile from the Perspective of Nuclear Criticism (Novels by Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko)

Abstract

This article analyzes the science fiction novels of Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko (1893–1982): Republika atomowa (‘The Atomic Republic’, 1947) and Atomowa pożoga (‘The Atomic Conflagration’, 1956). It compares the portrayal of nuclear threats in both works, contextualizing them within the geopolitical developments that occurred between their publications, including the Soviet Union’s development of the atomic bomb in 1949, and the Korean War (1950–1953). The article concludes by arguing that post-World War II Polish émigrés were animated by the hope for the Third World War, despite the real threat posed by nuclear annihilation.

Keywords:

Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko (1893–1982), nuclear criticism, The Third World War, nuclear weapon, science-fiction, émigré literature (1945–1989)



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Roczniki Humanistyczne · ISSN 0035-7707 | eISSN 2544-5200 | DOI: 10.18290/rh
© The Learned Society of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin & The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities

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