Who
is Milan Kundera?
©2001 by Miguel B. Llora, MA
| Kundera, Milan: Born April 1, 1929 in Brno, Moravia to Ludvik Kundera, a concert pianist, the younger Kundera was a jazz musician in his youth. He was a communist party member twice, from 1948-1950 and 1956-70. He was expelled from the party both times for heterodox opinions. These political forces affected his employment at the Film Faculty at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Prague, where he taught until 1969, when he was fired and his works proscribed from legal publication in Czechoslovakia. In response to these restrictions, Kundera emigrated to France in 1975, where he taught at the University of Rennes from 1975-1978. He now lives in Paris with his wife, Vera Hrabankova. | Fiction:
Zert (The Joke), 1965; Laughable Loves, 1968; Life Is Elsewhere, 1969; The Farewell
Party, 1975; The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, 1978; The Unbearable Lightness
of Being, 1984; Immortality, 1990; La Lenteur (Slowness) 1994; Identity, 1996;
Ignorance : A Novel, 2002 |
GRADUATING
ESSAY MILAN
KUNDERA: AN INDICTMENT AGAINST LIGHTNESS | Discussion
papers: Milan Kundera: an indictment against lightness The
Joke - Reading Circle or Book Club Summary and Questions
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 | Zert (The Joke): From the moment I picked up the book, all I could think about was Kafka - The Castle, Joseph K in The Trial.... Kundera could not seem to escape his Masters - Kafka, etc. The novel is as intricate as any of his works and somehow sets the stage for future pieces. By far the most political of his novels, it is not a political novel. It is a story of human existence. Kundera picks apart a particular theme, on one level Kundera can be said to be exploring a sense of the absurd. The four part novel is cleverly written in the first-person narrative. The novel centers around Ludvik and Helena and the colorful storied surrounding them and their cohorts. Kundera sets up his heros as antiheros through a series of humanizing qualities - usually self-centered. Accused of portraying his characters from a male fantasy perspective, people lose sight of the intricate stories that he weaves - part advocacy, part parody. Centered around the narrative of the joke - Ludvik, who being a dedicated communist, finds himself the victim of a joke he outlined in an open postcard to a young lady he was trying to impress. Locked in this Kafkaesque drama, his life is one tragedy after another. He becomes a skeptic. He blames history. We are thrust into a tailspin of the "absurd situation" we find ourself in. Surface as this analysis has been, kindly look to the deeply insightful comment that Kundera makes on the human condition through the use of his characters. I am certain we will all find a little of ourselves in every character. |
 | Laughable Loves, 1968: I can see why Kundera is the focus of so much controversy and at times his more profound issues are not given their due. In "Laughable Loves" as in several of Kundera's other novels, for many of the young male characters, love comes primarily in the form of sexual conquest, and promises of adventure, a rare chance to experience the uncommon and feel some sense of empowerment. Granted that there is this element, the experience of youthful exuberance, it is this and much more. It seems as though the comical characters who push the hardest for love are the most disappointed and indeed laughable - so, is it advocacy or parody? This a chance to poke fun at ourselves. A series of short stories, Kundera plays in the field of make believe and possibility, and shows us another side of the human condition. |
 | Life Is Elsewhere, 1969: Exiles inhabit an ethereal place that allows writers to transcend the everyday and come out with works that both entertain and teach. Thomas Mann did this for us and Kundera does it in Life is Elsewhere. The action of the novel centers around the short life of Jaromil, who is a creation of his mother as a new Apollo to somewhat make up for her loveless marriage. Jaromil is born in late 1920's, he grows up as a spoiled and sensitive teenager. He engages in writing lyrical verse, which is heavy into sexual fantasy. As 1948 communist revolution approaches, he moves on to semi-realistic poetry. At 18 we find Jaromil as a raging zealot. Jaromil is knee deep in the contradictory actions of reporting on lapses of professors and to find a girl to ease his physical need to get rid of his virginity. In this confusion, Jaromil finds himself a mature Stalinist. As if Kundera where apologizing for his own disappointment (as most intellectuals of that time where) over the Stalin excesses. The greatness of this book is his deep insight on adolescent struggle, the longing for maturity and the return to a lyrical time. Furthermore, he takes us through the experience of longing for the fame in the lone wolf and the need to return to the herd. Here Kundera fuses (which is once again the mark of his greatness) the deeply interwoven existential questioning with the ribald sense of humor that he masks the questioning around. The book is not really about Jaromil at all, it is about what he mentions early on in the novel, it is the attitude of the 'lyrical attitude' . "The lyric age is youth. My novel is an epos of youth, and an analysis of what I call "the lyrical attitude." The lyrical attitude is a potential stance of every human being; it is one of the basic categories of human existence. Upon reading that, I felt that I was reading Nietzsche and Heidegger all over again. That man is not static but becoming. Besides, Kundera does quote Heidegger: "The novel, of course, does not answer questions. The questions are already an answer in themselves, for Heidegger put it: the essence of man has the form of a question." Kundera presents to us the ridiculous nature - he does this in The Unbearable Lightness of Being - that life is not a thing we can repeat - it is this life and no other. Maybe if we can laugh at Jaromil, we will find the strength to laugh at ourselves as if we all don't have a little Xavier inside us. |
 | The Farewell Party, 1975: Set against the backdrop of a Central European spa town, Kundera once again orchestrates his polyphonic style to intertwine lives and stories to play out a small portion of the human condition. In what seems like an orgy of loves unfulfilled, partnership of the most unlikely kind; a nurse, her boyfriend, an American, a famous musician and his wife and a potential émigré and his ward mix and mingle and form some sort of relationship soup that manages to hold together. Despite the playful tone of the story and dialogue, "Farewell Waltz" deals with the profound issue of the fragility of life. Far be it for Kundera be labeled a symbolist, the blue pill speaks to me of how easy it is to choose the back door of living and to cash it all in for one reason or another. On one level, the accidental taking of the pill by Ruzena shows us just how easily life can be taken away. With Kundera's books you can be guaranteed that is that and much more. The irony of Dr. Skreta lies in his bizarre power to create - a very Mary Shelley touch - of science without soul. Makes me stop to think about the true nature of my origin. Over and above all this, Kundera play on how human we are and celebrates the fragility, the emotion and the universal need for love.... |
 | The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, 1978: A complex piece of public vs. private, the book is really less about laughter and more about forgetting. Tamina submits to Hugo, hoping that in turn he will find a way to bring back her cherished diary - her only mode of remembering. We see a different set of Kunderan issues in this book, where like Tomas in the Unbearable Lightness of Being, the characters find in their private erotic lives, the empowerment and freedom they so lack in the public arena. In a sea of disappointment, all the characters seem to fail to achieve their goals what is clear from Tamina's experience is that all this possibility in the erotic sphere comes with as much risk as it does promise. As is evidenced by the suffering of Tamina, few of his characters go unscathed. Just like the story of the hat, it is clear that remembering is a sort of forgetting. In a world of broken dreams, we tend to find places of solace and comfort despite the risk. We laugh, we cry, we forget, we remember, we live the tension and live out our Nietzschean potential, picking and choosing what we remember. A celebration of our human, all too human, side. Another Kundera triumph. |
 | The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1984: In the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera takes great pains to mask what is essentially, an indictment against lightness. Through a process of purposeful ambiguity, Kundera sets up three important and interrelated themes in the novel. These three themes need to be examined at some length in order to understand Kundera's complexity and unravel his indictment against lightness. Firstly, there is the psychological construct of the eternal return as developed by Friedrich Nietzsche. Kundera begins The Unbearable Lightness of Being with: The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other philosophers with it: to think that everything recurs as we once experienced it, and that the recurrence itself recurs ad infinitum! What does the mad myth signify? Putting it negatively, the myth of eternal return states that a life which disappears once and for all, which does not return, is like a shadow, without weight, dead in advance, and whether it was horrible, beautiful or sublime, its horror, sublimity, and beauty mean nothing.(1) The eternal return forms the foundation of the discourse of the opposition between lightness and weight. The eternal return moves us to reconsider whether the accidental nature of human existence (einmal ist keinmal) makes it less significant. Is lightness positive or negative? Parmenides posits that lightness is positive. Kundera's position is that it is negative. Kundera and Nietzsche see the heaviest of burdens as the image of life's most intense fulfillment. Nietzsche and Kundera advocate the need for significance, which springs from weight as if both were synonymous. Kundera asks us what the mad myth of the eternal return signifies in all of its perplexity. The perplexity is played out in Kundera's stories within stories. Secondly, through the love story of Tomas, Tereza and Sabina, Kundera plays out his indictment against lightness. Within this braid of interwoven relations, Kundera places the duality of lightness and weight side by side, seemingly not endorsing one or the other. To give a better picture of the dynamics that surround the three main characters it is important to focus on each character separately and then in relation to each other. Kundera creates complex characters with hard choices and unique circumstances. Despite the purposeful ambiguity, the search for meaning leans towards the necessity of significance, which comes from a sense of weight. Thirdly, Kundera plays out his indictment against lightness in the public arena, placing the personal stories within the historical framework of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in August of 1968; through this mechanism history becomes another story within a story. Are events forgiven in advance because they happen only once? Kundera poses questions of historical significance surrounding the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. History repeats itself while collectively we tend to forget that a similar event occurred previously. We regard events with little significance because we see occurrences in isolation, never to happen again. In this sense, his indictment against lightness is justified, accurate and timely. The Czech experience reflects the duality of lightness and weight within the context of the eternal return. How? Collectively, do we negate or affirm the takeover? |
 | Immortality, 1990: Who of us does not, at least for moment, wonder what people will think about us when we are gone. What kind of a legacy we leave behind seems to be important to some people.... apparently it is to Kundera. For in his mind, Goethe seemed fixated by it. Whether is "big" immortality or "little" immortality the end is the same. Agnes, Laura, paul, Bernard, Goethe, Rolland, Eluard and Rilke. Beethoven and Bettina.... Bettina. Kundera takes us from the everyday to the historical. Did this all really happen.... Who really cares? The twist and turns as well as the one thing that Kundera does best - to take on one particular aspect of the human condition - in this case Immortality. One of his most complex novels, it follows "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" in its lyrical style and the voices and narratives. There are few writers like Kundera who can take us from the one scene to the next and yet it seems to flow, like it is common and should be happening. Is there a Nobel Prize waiting in the wings? There should be. Next to "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", "Immortality" is head and shoulders above the rest in terms of complexity and breadth. |
 | La Lenteur (Slowness) 1994: There are those who read Kundera for the deep philosophical meandering and those who like him for the literary gymnastics. I have to admit to being a lover of both. I can see the hard core philosopher types locked in a heavily wooded library trying to suck up every ounce of profundity from The Joke, Testaments Betrayed and The Art of the Novel, while the rest of use are in a cafe reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Life is Elsewhere and of course, Immortality. Whichever side you see yourself, there will be something for you in Slowness. You will see the typical Kundera style of the ever present Kundera voice - and obtrusive author. For the philosophical in us, we will read about a narrator and his wife, who are taking an unplanned holiday, driving down a country highway in search of a romantic chateau. Impatient, the narrator inquires: "Why has the pleasure of slowness disappeared? Ah, where have they gone, the amblers of yesteryear? Where have they gone, those loafing heroes of folksongs, those vagabonds who roam from one mill to another and bed down under the stars?" This becomes the philosophical foundation for the magical literary gymnastics that is Kundera's playground. Kundera spins many tales. Tales as laughable as they are profound. We are transported to an AIDS charity feast, famine ravaged Somalia, Henry Kissinger's White House Office. For the archivist in us, Kundera does not let us down. He comes back to the theme style he used in previous novels, this time, it is "staying fixed". As is common with Kundera, he spins his purposeful confusion and takes on a roller coaster ride of literary magic that I don't mind taking. In the end, I walk away with, the rate with which we do things is directly proportional to the rate with which we forget things. By far not his most profound novel, the residue of greatness still lingers - it is too bad that to date, a Nobel Price has eluded him - for the range and greatness of his work, Kundera should be richly rewarded, but then again, they missed Borges as well - so what else is new, eh? In about 156 pages I have once again been transported to the Bohemian countryside that in my lyrical youth I learned love so much. In a new western world obsessed with Ayn Rand - stop to meander, laugh and be entertained, in a world of Slowness. |
 | Identity, 1996: Kundera plays with the fractured self in this book. I agree that the core of the book centers around the unknowable "other". Often times we think we know someone and we find we are surprised. Kundera loves to play in the field of human relations and this book is not exception. If you take the book for itself, then you will see a richly textures interplay between two people Chantal and Jean-Marc and the personal "issues" that plague them. If you place this in the context of the richly ornamented and finely crafted works that are The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Immortality, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - the book looks less like a unique work and more like Laughable Loves. The difference between this and The Hitchhiking Game is that the HHG plays around in the area of role playing while Chantal seems to be really to "find" rather than "create" herself. I guess we are all in some sense "creating ourselves". Kundera does like to work around in the dangerous area of fidelity and makes it all a matter of choice. I am confused about the statement made by the reader from Chicago who wrote on march 30, 2001 "He attempts, instead to achieve what Kafka did: the creation of an alternate reality". As much as I love Kafka, I have a hard time placing them on the same page. Anyway, good observation. I would place Kafka in the realm of Borges and as an inspiration for Kundera - but the two are mutually exclusive. All this said, on its own it is a good book but does not deserve a place beside his classics. |
 | The Art of the Novel, 1961: Foucault posits that the authorial function is a discourse all its own. As if to say that authors, publishers, readers, marketers, etc., are part of an elaborate mechanism that gets between the reader and the text. Milan Kundera is a master of his authorial function and does not disappoint with "The Art of the Novel". In this work, Kundera goes beyond "Testaments Betrayed" (a work that examines the efforts of Max Brod on behalf of Kafka and Janacek) and addresses issues surrounding Kundera's own work. Given the forum to further discuss topics like kitsch; and no make mistake, Kundera understands his authorial function. The book contains discussions of Cervantes, Kafka, Broch, Musil, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Sterne, Falubert and Balzac, as if revealing his entire array of inspirational sources. Furthermore, the compact but dense book also deals with the Czech Republic, totalitarianism, Stalinism, Kitsch, Central European Culture, modernity, the novel. I often wonder what prompted this almost apologetic work. Conversely, the range and complexity of Kundera's ouevre is astounding as it is controversial. Loaded with sexuality, I often wonder if his commercial success is the reason the Nobel people have overlooked his profound inquiries. As the novel is the playground of possibility, can an explanation of one's own work enhance it - sure it does. A must read for Kundera scholars. |
 | Testaments Betrayed, 1995: Readers will no doubt be reminded of Art of the Novel, a more careful reading will reveal that the major theme of the book, the posthumous betrayal of artists and their work, was also dealt with to a large extent in Immortality. In Immortality, Kundera allowed for the posthumous encounter of Hemingway and Goethe. Where Goethe speaks candidly to Hemingway and mentions that "Haven't you realized, Ernest that the figures they talk about have nothing to do with us." Dealing mostly with Max Brod's betrayal of Kafka, Kundera is simply standing up for the rights of artists wishing that artists wishes and rights be honored. Kundera brings in his vast knowledge of music to the discourse of the novel stating in effect that each section carries a tempo which indicates a change in atmosphere. Effectively, Testaments Betrayed is a 9 part piece that covers a range of subjects from the history, the life, and the death of the novel, Hemingway, Kafka, Janacek, Stravinsky and Don Quixote. Not to reduce Testaments Betrayed to a single theme, the focus does seem to be the betrayal of Kafka by Brod. Kundera describes how Kafka suspends believability not to escape the world but to capture it. When Max Brod refuses to burn Kafka's papers, he effectively creates Kafkology. Kundera notices the parallel fate of Kafka and yet another of his heroes, Leos Janacek causing his provincialism and isolating him from mainstream music. Effectively, "a dead person is treated either as trash or as a symbol. Either way, it's the same disrespect to his vanished individuality." I line with what Foucualt and Barthe are talking about when talking about the 'Author Function'. I guess it is really ironic that betrayal comes from the best intentioned. Kundera no doubt is controversial where this is concerned as I can imagine the career Kafkologist will disagree with him and see Brod as a hero - the one who saved Kafka from obscurity. No matter what your opinion, Kundera is just as responsible for all the authorial function violations by brining it all up - more power to him. |
 | Ignorance : A Novel, 2002: Kundera cleverly joins the story of Odysseus with his own musings of coming home and the dread that such a scenario provides. Once again, we see Kundera distract us with unrealistic love affairs while he diverts our attention from the musings related to fate, history and nostalgia. Ignorance, unfortunately seems hurried and in the end doubtless this book will produce in his most ardent supporters a nostalgia for Kundera at his most profound. Although the "intrusive author" technique for which Kundera is famous for is all over this book, it seems to lack the density of such books as The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Immortality. Josef and Irena return to Prague after an extended absence. Josef returns to form some closure in relation to his deceased wife. Conversely, Irena is convinced by a friend that it would be exciting to return to Prague after all these years. Both find much like Odysseus that they are returning to a very different "home." Both sink into each others arms in a hurried episode of lovemaking that somewhat reflects the disappointment of the journey home. Kundera's last three books: Identity, Slowness, and Ignorance do not have the same complexity as the major works like The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and Immortality. It is as if the writer is tired and simply revisiting his old themes - remembering, history, and unrealistic affairs - affairs that are only possible in the imaginary space of fiction. Although it is the hallmark of Kundera's genius to blend the historical (Oedipus, etc. - in this case Odysseus) there does not seem to be anything REALLY original in this work. As mentioned earlier, it leaves me nostalgic for Kundera at his most profound and most playful. |
 | The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Criterion Collection (1988): Kaufman turned a complex book into a simple love story. If one wishes to review the movie for itself sans the book, you see a love story based on personal preferences and bad Czech accents. However, if you review the the movie within the context of the book, it falls flat in many places. No one can argue the beauty and exoticism and beauty of Prague shines through and Kaufman's treatment of the Czech invasion superb. What the movie seems to fall short on is the nature of Tomas's existential angst - the tension between lightness and weight. Tomas is played up against the backdrop of the Oedipus story and not against Nietzsche's eternal return. Alright, you have to consider that two hours to play out what needs a whole book to explore is not easy. I am really disappointed in the movie after having spent so much time with the book. The characterization of Tomas, Sabina and Tereza by Daniel Day-Lewis, Lena Olina and Juliet Binoche allows it a soft landing. Where was Franz in the whole scheme of things? In the book, Franz is a really integral part of the consideration of the lightness contra weight consideration although his role is really to play up Kundera's "Life is Elsewhere" theme. In the movie Franz is bit part. Lacking the full complexity of the book but beautiful in its location and eroticism,the movie manages to work. Although, it is bad enough that Kundera's work is sometimes reduced to male fantasy, do we have to confirm it via a movie? |
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 | Understanding
Milan Kundera: Public Events, Private Affairs (Understanding Modern European and
Latin American Literature) by Fred Misurella: Fred Misurella takes Milan Kundera
and makes him accessible. Not that Milan Kundera is incomprehensible, it is just that there are so many twists and turns sometimes a little help is all we need. Misurella is good at noting the parabatic asides and is excellent at zeroing in on some of the key themes that Kundera explores. His read on "The Joke" is so comprehensive, it is almost a must to have this book with you like dictionary. His reading of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" is really interesting. Taking the approach form a Oedipus angle, Misurella misses some of the subtle Nietzsche and Tolstoy angles that Kundera includes. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" is full of references to "The Eternal Return" and "Anna Karenina" that it is impossible to miss - and Misurella misses this by placing the Oedipus read at the center. If you read "Understanding Milan Kundera" along side Maria Nemcova Banerjee's "Terminal Paradoxes" and John O'Brian's "Milan Kundera & feminism : dangerous intersections" then you will get a greater appreciation for the complexity of Kundera's work. If you use the book as a reader, then you will have taken advantage of the book already. However, Misurella does an ending with "The Art of the Novel" that brings Kundera's work together very nicely. It is impossible to even try to do a comprehensive piece of Kundera as the body of work is so huge and complex. Misurella does a wonderful job of taking such a complex subject and making is accessible for folks like me. I recommend it highly along with the other books above. I'm sure Kundera would agree. |
| Terminal paradox: The novels of Milan Kundera by Maria Nemcová Banerjee: Arguably one of the greatest contemporary writers around, Milan Kundera is one of the most difficult writers to read and analyze. I say this because he can be read on many levels. To get a much richer and fuller read, there is no escaping the work of Maria Nemcova Banerjee. In "Terminal Paradox: The Novels of Milan Kundera" Banerjee cuts through the complex intertextual basis for Kundera's work. Kundera is heavily influenced by the likes of Cervantes, Nietzsche, Kafka, Rabelais, and Tolstoy - to name a few. To be able to "really" understand Kundera with some depth and understanding you need to have an understanding of his masters - Banerjee does this for us - she creates a roadmap. I am not saying that you can stop now and consider her work a substitute for gaining access to this deeper understanding of Kundera's work - but it sure makes it much easier. If you wish to undertake a serious academic consideration of Kundera's work - "Terminal Paradox - The Novels of Milan Kundera" is an invaluable resource and I recommend it highly. |
| MICHEL FOUCAULT | JACQUES DERRIDA | EDWARD SAID | MILAN KUNDERA | PHILIP ROTH |
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