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Reading Guide the Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Reading Guide The Book of Laughter and Forgetting By Milan Kundera ISBN: 9780060932145 Plot Summary With its seven interrelated parts--rich in story, character, and imaginative range--The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1978) is the novel that brought Czech-born Milan Kundera his first big international success. Aaron Asher's new translation, commissioned and monitored by Kundera himself, conveys beautifully into English the nuances and the tone of the author's original text. "Part fairy tale, part literary criticism, part political tract, part musicology, and part autobiography" (as the New York Times described it), The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is, above all, the wonderfully integrated stories of men and women living in a world of public oppression and private longings, a world in which history may be rewritten overnight and in which love may fall victim to either political intrusion or personal betrayal. The seven parts of Kundera's novel explore different aspects of human existence in the twentieth century, particularly as they are affected by life in the police state of the narrator's fictionalized Bohemia. In 1971, three years after the Russian occupation of his homeland, Mirek--under surveillance by the not-so-secret police--seeks to retrieve his love letters from his former lover, Zdena. Marketa and her husband, Karel, must cope with Karel's increasingly childlike mother while at the same time dealing with the amoral Eva and memories of past desires. At a small French summer school, two American girls learn the lessons of laughter. Displaced to a provincial town in Western Europe, Tamina ("all the other stories are variations on her own story") urgently tries to retrieve memories of her husband and their past together in Bohemia, memories recorded in notebooks that she left behind at her mother-in-law's house in Prague. -
In 1975, Seven Years After the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, Milan Kundera Left His Country for France
KUNDERA’S NOVELS IN THE CONTEXT OF TRANSLATION Jan RUBES In 1975, seven years after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Milan Kundera left his country for France. This was at the time when Husak’s power made it easer to get rid of “anticommunist elements”. Kundera had chosen France for several reasons. First, he spoke French relatively well. In the early sixties, he translated and published an anthology of Apollinaire’s poetry. Secondly, his books, and especially “The Joke”, published in France, had been very successful. Thirdly, he was, like most Czech intellectuals, attached to French cultural heritage. Upon his arrival in France, Kundera had been known as the author of the novel “The Joke” (1968), a book of short stories “Laughable Loves” (1970), and an other novel “Life is Elsewhere” (1973). His fourth book, “The Farewell Waltz” was published in 1976, some months after his arrival in France. The interest in Kundera and the success of his books in France seem easy to comprehend. Since 1966 Czechoslovak intellectuals tried to integrate new democratic elements in the political practice. In the beginning of 1968 the communist party, which until then had rejected any attempt at post Stalinist reforms, became the initiator of the social transformation process. The role of communist intellectuals was essential : whereas they had legitimized the cultural policy of the party since the 50s, suddenly they became, in the context of liberalization, the most dynamic group in society. In France, the situation of a number of very well known intellectuals who joined the party after World War Two was similar. -
Encounter: Essays by Milan Kundera
TIM JONES is a PhD candidate at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. His thesis explores Milan Kundera's three, critically-neglected French novels, Slowness, Identity, and Ignorance. His paper on Slowness can be found at the Review of European Studies website. Book Review Encounter: Essays by Milan Kundera Trans. by Linda Asher, London: Faber and Faber, 2010, 192 pp., £12.99, ISBN 978-0-571-25089-9 / Tim Jones ALMOST EXACTLY HALFWAY THROUGH his latest collection of essays, Milan Kundera provides, in a manner with which readers of both his fiction and non- fiction will be familiar, a working definition of the noun that he has chosen for his title. An encounter, he informs us, is ‘not a social relation, not a friendship, not even an alliance’, but ‘a spark; a lightning flash; random chance’ (pp. 83– 84). This explanation grants some cohesion between the thematic concerns and peformative elements of a book in danger of appearing frustratingly eclectic, which blends reworked versions of material published elsewhere—in some cases, as with Kundera’s musings on musician Iannis Xenakis, decades ago— with entirely new compositions, together introducing a series of fascinating subjects but mostly refusing to dwell on any single one for more than a few short paragraphs. The second of Encounter’s nine parts, for example, discusses several European novels that Kundera finds particularly interesting, but in affording each only two or three pages his explorations often sound much like the truncated soundbites that novels of his own, such as Immortality and Slowness, work hard to denounce. -
Milan Kundera's the Joke." Philosophy and Literature 34, No
University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Publications 4-2010 Baring the Brain as well as the Soul: Milan Kundera's The okJ e Yvonne Howell University of Richmond, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/mlc-faculty-publications Part of the Russian Literature Commons Recommended Citation Howell, Yvonne. "Baring the Brain as Well as the Soul: Milan Kundera's The Joke." Philosophy and Literature 34, no. 1 (April 2010): 201-17. doi:10.1353/phl.0.0085. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Yvonne Howell BARING THE BRAIN AS WELL AS THE SOUL: MILAN KUNDERA’s THE JOKE I ilan Kundera’s first major novel, The Joke, was written in M1961–1965, before he made the decision to leave Czechoslovakia and take up residency as a political exile in France.1 With a few note- worthy exceptions, critics of the work focused on its political message in a Cold War context. This was easy to do: its plot revolves around an avid young Czech communist (Ludvik), who writes an ironic postcard to his overly earnest girlfriend while she is away at a political training camp. The year is 1950, and among intellectuals, enthusiasm for a new era of Soviet-mediated socialism is a genuine response to the chaotic disintegration of old certainties after the Nazi occupation of the coun- try. -
European Journal of American Studies , Reviews 2011-2 Velichka Ivanova
European journal of American studies Reviews 2011-2 Velichka Ivanova. Fiction, utopie, histoire. Essai sur Philip Roth et Milan Kundera. Pia Masiero Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/9441 ISSN: 1991-9336 Publisher European Association for American Studies Electronic reference Pia Masiero, “Velichka Ivanova. Fiction, utopie, histoire. Essai sur Philip Roth et Milan Kundera.”, European journal of American studies [Online], Reviews 2011-2, document 17, Online since 22 November 2011, connection on 12 July 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/9441 This text was automatically generated on 12 July 2021. Creative Commons License Velichka Ivanova. Fiction, utopie, histoire. Essai sur Philip Roth et Milan K... 1 Velichka Ivanova. Fiction, utopie, histoire. Essai sur Philip Roth et Milan Kundera. Pia Masiero REFERENCES Paris: L’Harmattan, 2010. Pp. 256. ISBN: 978-2-296-13250-4 1 Ivanova ambitiously proposes and successfully manages to read Philip Roth’s and Milan Kundera’s works along comparatistic lines. The comparison between Milan Kundera and Philip Roth is certainly not new and stems directly from the two authors’ knowing each other personally (starting in the 1970s). Roth wrote the introduction to Kundera’s Laughable Loves back in 1974, he dedicated The Ghost Writer (1979) to him and invokes his presence mentioning his name in The Human Stain in 2000. The most notable and extended critical treatment (in English) of the two writers’ relationship to date comes from Ross Posnock’s Philip Roth’s Rude Truth: The Art of Immaturity (2006). Kundera is one of the chief interlocutors Posnock sets Roth in conversation with. -
Jihočeská Univerzita V Českých Budějovicích Filozofická Fakulta Ústav Bohemistiky
JIHOČESKÁ UNIVERZITA V ČESKÝCH BUDĚJOVICÍCH FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA ÚSTAV BOHEMISTIKY BAKALÁŘSKÁ PRÁCE MOTIV VZTAHU JAKO ZPŮSOB NAZÍRÁNÍ SVĚTA A LIDSKÉ EXISTENCE V NĚM V KUNDEROVÝCH SMĚŠNÝCH LÁSKÁCH, ŽERTU A NESNESITELNÉ LEHKOSTI BYTÍ Vedoucí práce: prof. PaedDr. Michal Bauer, Ph.D. Autor práce: Karolína Zajícová Studijní obor: Anglický jazyk a literatura-Bohemistika Ročník: 4. 2014 Prohlašuji, že svoji bakalářskou práci jsem vypracovala samostatně pouze s použitím pramenů a literatury uvedených v seznamu citované literatury. Prohlašuji, že v souladu s § 47b zákona č. 111/1998 Sb. v platném znění souhlasím se zveřejněním své bakalářské práce, a to v nezkrácené podobě elektronickou cestou ve veřejně přístupné části databáze STAG provozované Jihočeskou univerzitou v Českých Budějovicích na jejích internetových stránkách, a to se zachováním mého autorského práva k odevzdanému textu této kvalifikační práce. Souhlasím dále s tím, aby toutéž elektronickou cestou byly v souladu s uvedeným ustanovením zákona č. 111/1998 Sb. zveřejněny posudky školitele a oponentů práce i záznam o průběhu a výsledku obhajoby kvalifikační práce. Rovněž souhlasím s porovnáním textu mé kvalifikační práce s databází kvalifikačních prací Theses.cz provozovanou Národním registrem vysokoškolských kvalifikačních prací a systémem na odhalování plagiátů. České Budějovice, 28. dubna 2014 …………………………………….. Karolína Zajícová Děkuji prof. PaedDr. Michalu Bauerovi, Ph.D za odborné vedení, cenné rady a trpělivost při konzultacích. Dále děkuji rodině za podporu, především mamince. Anotace Tato bakalářská práce se bude zabývat motivem vztahu v Kunderových povídkách Směšné lásky a dvou románech Žertu a Nesnesitelné lehkosti bytí. Vybrala jsem tato konkrétní díla, abych se pokusila zachytit motiv vztahu ve více podobách od počátku Kunderovy prozaické tvorby, kde je možno hledat zárodky jeho velkých románů právě skrze motiv vztahu dvou lidí, který přeroste v antropologické až existenciální problémy lidí, v rozpor člověka s historií. -
The Curtain: an Essay in Seven Parts
The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts HarperCollins, 2007 - 176 pages - 0060841958, 9780060841959 - 2007 - The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts - Milan Kundera - “A magic curtain, woven of legends, hung before the world. Cervantes sent Don Quixote journeying and tore through the curtain. The world opened before the knight-errant in all the comical nakedness of its prose.― In this thought-provoking, endlessly enlightening, and entertaining essay on the art of the novel, renowned author Milan Kundera suggests that “the curtain― represents a ready-made perception of the world that each of us has—a pre-interpreted world. The job of the novelist, he argues, is to rip through the curtain and reveal what it hides. Here an incomparable literary artist cleverly sketches out his personal view of the history and value of the novel in Western civilization. In doing so, he celebrates a prose form that possesses the unique ability to transcend national and language boundaries in order to reveal some previously unknown aspect of human existence. file download xefo.pdf Life Is Elsewhere - The author initially intended to call this novel The Lyrical Age. The lyrical age, according to Kundera, is youth, and this novel, above all, is an epic of adolescence; an - ISBN:0060997028 - Jul 25, 2000 - 432 pages - Fiction - Milan Kundera, Aaron Asher Fiction - Milan Kundera - All too often, this brilliant novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried has been read for its political implications. Now, a quarter century after The Joke was first - ISBN:9780060995058 - Feb 26, 1993 - 336 pages - The JOKE Parts Fiction - A New York Times Notable Book Irena and Josef meet by chance while returning to their homeland, which they had abandoned twenty years earlier. -
UNIVERZITA PARDUBICE FAKULTA FILOZOFICKÁ Katedra Literární
UNIVERZITA PARDUBICE FAKULTA FILOZOFICKÁ Katedra literární kultury a slavistiky PROMĚNY PREZENTACE OSOBNOSTI A DÍLA MILANA KUNDERY OD 90. LET PO SOUČASNOST VE STŘEDOŠKOLSKÝCH UČEBNICÍCH Bakalářská práce TEREZA TAHADLOVÁ Vedoucí práce: PhDr. Ivo Říha, Ph.D. Pardubice 2018 Prohlášení autorky Prohlašuji: Tuto práci jsem vypracovala samostatně. Veškeré literární prameny a informace, které jsem v práci využila, jsou uvedeny v seznamu použité literatury. Byla jsem seznámena s tím, že se na moji práci vztahují práva a povinnosti vyplývající ze zákona č. 121/2000 Sb., autorský zákon, zejména se skutečností, že Univerzita Pardubice má právo na uzavření licenční smlouvy o užití této práce jako školního díla podle § 60 odst. 1 autorského zákona, a s tím, že pokud dojde k užití této práce mnou nebo bude poskytnuta licence o užití jinému subjektu, je Univerzita Pardubice oprávněna ode mne požadovat přiměřený příspěvek na úhradu nákladů, které na vytvoření díla vynaložila, a to podle okolností až do jejich skutečné výše. Souhlasím s prezenčním přístupem své práce v Univerzitní knihovně. V Pardubicích dne 28.3. 2018 Tereza Tahadlová Poděkování Děkuji PhDr. Ivo Říhovi, Ph.D., za odborné vedení, trpělivost a ochotu, kterou mi v průběhu zpracování bakalářské práce věnoval. Mé poděkování patří též personálu Pedagogické knihovny J. A. Komenského za ochotu během získávání údajů pro výzkumnou část práce. Obzvlášť děkuji všem mým přátelům, blízkým a rodině za podporu a pomoc během studia na Univerzitě Pardubice. Anotace Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá proměnami prezentace díla a života Milana Kundery ve středoškolských učebnicích a čítankách vydávaných od 90. let 20. století po současnost. Teoretická část práce se okrajově zabývá nástinem didaktických metod, systémů a zásad výuky literatury a jejich vývojem. -
Literature, Art and Film” - Syllabus Spring 2012
“Civil Resistance in Central and Eastern Europe Reflected in: Literature, Art and Film” - Syllabus Spring 2012 PhDr. Monika MacDonagh-Pajerová [email protected], tel. +420 603 146 206, Office hours by appointment -Wed. or Thurs. Afternoon. Course description: The course will examine the nature and significance of civil resistance in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th century in a transversal, multi-disciplinary way. By studying literature, art and film we will operate in a space between modern history, political science, literature and film studies and psychology. Civil resistance is not the same as just opting out of society or having views which go against the grain. It is far more fundamental than that and anybody raised in a democratic society where freedom of expression – both civil and artistic – is guaranteed, faces a challenge in trying to understand the circumstances in which people lived in this region in the past hundred years. It is about taking a decision – not to conform, not to go quietly along, with repressive regimes like Communism and Nazism. It is also about choosing the mode of action – political i.e. non-violent or military, especially in the times of war. Until recently, study has tended to emphasize the role of physical force in dealing with totalitarian regimes. Since 1989 there has been growing recognition that civil, artistic and educational activities can be equally important. You can not understand civil resistance without understanding what the resistance is against – so this course requires us to get a foundation of understanding in how totalitarian regimes act, why people actively conform with them and why free expression and access to information from the outside world is considered as the biggest threat. -
Thesis Tim Jones
Slowness , Identity and Ignorance : Milan Kundera’s French Variations Tim Jones Thesis submitted 2012 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy: School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing, University of East Anglia 2 Abstract This thesis explores in detail three academically neglected novels by Milan Kundera: Slowness (1995), Identity (1998) and Ignorance (2002). Originally written in French, the author’s second language, after six novels, a short-story collection and a play originally written in Czech, these texts are often bracketed off from the rest of his writing and seen as something of an inferior addendum. This is despite clear thematic similarities that cross the linguistic divide and that I demonstrate here are of central significance to the author’s entire novelistic project. This exploration not only reveals that these three French novels place in the foreground themes that have rippled in and out of focus across Kundera’s earlier Czech work and so are of central importance to Kundera as a novelist. It also shows that the lateness of the variations on the themes of slowness, identity and ignorance within these three French novels does not hold everything in common with the lateness that Adorno locates in late Beethoven. It is true that like late Beethoven, Kundera’s late variations on these themes demonstrate the manoeuvres of an oeuvre sensing its death across the horizon. But through the specific nature of the late variations on slowness, identity and ignorance, the oeuvre works hard to pull its readers down into the textual spaces of these three late novels with a fresh urgency, rather than truculently push them away, so that Kundera’s audience might be adequately prepared to continue its own voyages once the oeuvre has played its final notes. -
CHAPTER 1 Introduction This Study of World Literature Begins Where Many
CHAPTER 1 Introduction This study of world literature begins where many do: with Goethe, but then it will go backwards from Goethe before it goes forward. The term world literature itself derives from Goethe’s neologism Weltliteratur, recorded by his personal secretary Johann Peter Eckermann from a conversation one night over dinner: “National literature is now rather an unmeaning term; the epoch of World-literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach” (165). The newness of the term is evidenced in John Oxenford’s 1930 translation by the hyphenation that brings the compound concept over from German into English. World literature is now a commonplace in English, although what exactly it is remains a matter of debate, allowing for such titles as David Damrosch’s book in 2003: What Is World Literature? But what Goethe means by world literature or what “we” mean by world literature today is not entirely my concern here—at least not yet—and this is where I go backwards from his neologism. In Eckermann’s account, the conversation in which Goethe lets slip the word that will create a new field of study begins thus: “Within the last few days, since I saw you,” said he, “I have read many things; especially a Chinese novel, which occupies me still and seems to me very remarkable.” “Chinese novel!” said I; “that must look strange enough.” “Not so much as you might think,” said Goethe; “the Chinamen [sic] think, act, and feel almost exactly like us…” (164) 1 Goethe goes on to explain the similarities and differences he finds between the “us” he refers to and Chinese writing and culture it represents, drawing connections between the Chinese text he has read and his own Hermann and Dorothea as well as the novels of Richardson and the Chansons de Béranger. -
Reading Guide the Unbearable Lightness of Being
Reading Guide The Unbearable Lightness of Being By Milan Kundera ISBN: 9780060932138 Plot Summary Tereza and Tomas, Tomas and Sabina, Sabina and Franz, Franz and Marie-Claude--four people, four relationships. Milan Kundera's masterful novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), tells the interlocking stories of these four relationships, with a primary focus on Tomas, a man torn between his love for Tereza, his wife, and his incorrigible "erotic adventures," particularly his long-time affair with the internationally noted painter, Sabina. The world of Kundera's novel is one in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and fortuitous events. It is a world in which, because everything occurs only once and then disappears into the past, existence seems to lose its substance and weight. Coping with both the consequences of their own actions and desires and the intruding demands of society and the state, Kundera's characters struggle to construct lives of individual value and lasting meaning. A novel of ideas, a provocative look at the ways in which history impinges on individual lives, and a meditation on personal identity, The Unbearable Lightness of Being examines the imperfect possibilities of adult love and the ways in which free choice and necessity shape our lives. "What then shall we choose?" Kundera asks at the beginning of his novel. "Weight or lightness?" This international bestseller is his attempt to answer that question. And the answer is hinted at in the novel's final scene, in which Tomas and Tereza find themselves in a small country hotel after a rare evening of dancing.