Abstract
The article presents a comparative analysis of the works of two outstanding Central and Eastern European writers of the 1930s - the Polish author Bruno Schulz and the Romanian author Max Blecher. Although they never met in person, both shared similar existential and artistic experiences: life in provincial isolation, Jewish cultural background, and a sense of alienation that shaped their vision of the world and their artistic language. The aim of the study is to demonstrate the affinities in the representation of space in their prose - both in its external dimension (home, town, environment) and internal dimension (body, imagination, psyche). The author explores how space in their works becomes a metaphor for human existence and identity, as well as a medium of artistic expression. The author employs a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, combining literary analysis with philosophical and aesthetic reflection. His interpretations draw on the concepts of Gaston Bachelard, Mircea Eliade, and Carl Gustav Jung concerning space, myth, and imagination, and refer to the traditions of fantastic realism and existentialism. The conclusions of the article indicate that the prose of Schulz and Blecher creates a shared model of “enclosed space” - a microcosm in which the individual seeks meaning and coherence amidst chaos and suffering. In the works of both authors, space ceases to be a geographical category and becomes a psychological and symbolic one — a site of self-knowledge and an attempt to transcend the limits of reality. The article demonstrates that despite their differing cultural contexts, Schulz and Blecher are united by a profound kinship of imagination and existential experience, which makes their work a unique phenomenon in twentieth-century European literature.
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