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An Analysis of Irony in the Unbearable Lightness of Being

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An Analysis of Irony in the Unbearable Lightness of Being ISSN 1923-1555[Print] Studies in Literature and Language ISSN 1923-1563[Online] Vol. 10, No. 3, 2015, pp. 28-31 www.cscanada.net DOI: 10.3968/6597 www.cscanada.org An Analysis of Irony in The Unbearable Lightness of Being CHEN Yuanhua[a],*; WANG Qian[b] [a]Human Resource Department, China West Normal University, or ostensibly stated”1. And the fundamental characteristic Nanchong, China. of irony is to proclaim a kind of philosophical thinking [b]School of Foreign Languages, China West Normal University, Nanchong, China. and the attitude toward life in the frequent use of contrast. *Corresponding author. And it also shows a dialectical point of view toward life. With the development of irony writing, Kundera’s novel Received 8 December 2014; accepted 8 February 2015 The Unbearable Lightness of Being becomes the best Published online 26 March 2015 representative of the use of irony. In The Unbearable Lightness, Kundera stands on Abstract the boundary of the century, from at the end of the 19th The Unbearable Lightness of Being is widely known as century to the 20th century, outlining the individuals’ a typical example of modern ironical novels of Milan suffering in modern society and human’s attempt to return Kundera. Through the analysis of the use of irony in the home. The use of irony is presented throughout this novel, aspects of life value, love value and political implications with a complicated love story of a man with two women, in this novel, this paper concludes that people should which leads readers to the deeply thinking about human balance “light” and “heavy” in daily life, so as to achieve life, love and politics. The successful application of irony a new and unique perspective of life, love and politics. in The Unbearable Lightness of Being forms the special Key words: Irony; Life value; Love value; Political style of Milan Kundera and profoundly triggers a new implication view on life, love and politics of people. And this paper will analyze the use of irony in The Unbearable Lightness Chen, Y. H., & Wang, Q. (2015). An Analysis of Irony in The Unbearable of Being according to the characteristics of the following Lightness of Being. Studies in Literature and Language, 10(3), 28-31. three parts: reflecting the life value, mirroring the love Available from: http://www.cscanada.net/index.php/sll/article/view/6597 value and revealing the political implications. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/6597 1. IRONY IN THE NOVEL Irony is always applied to indicate some kind of subtle INTRODUCTION meaning in literary woks, and in this novel, irony is mainly to express the life value, love value and political The concept of irony was first seen in Socrates’ strategy implications. of the “Socratic Irony”, and it developed unprecedentedly in the 18th century in Europe. Then, irony is defined as the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite 2. REFLECTING THE LIFE VALUE of its literal meaning. Gradually, with the expansion and modification of the definition of irony made by different Life value, literally including the concept of “life” and scholars, its forms are becoming more and more various. “value” (Li, 2008, p.2), refers to people’s conscious The use of irony has become an important novel creative recognition to themselves and the meaning of others and pattern in modern history of literature, i.e. “a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, 1 Quoted in World English Dictionary.Retrieved 2014, may 12 from an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/+irony?s=t Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture 28 CHEN Yuanhua; WANG Qian (2015). Studies in Literature and Language, 10(3), 28-31 the society, under a certain social historical condition. In the whole life, chasing after the value of life. But with no August, 1968, Czechoslovakia was occupied by Soviet love, no motherland and no loyalty in her life to express troops. A large number of Czech intellectuals were her life value, she was only to be “light” to lose the life driven away. And Kundera was also one of those victims. value. Additionally, what she persistently pursued was just He was fired from his party and was prohibited from an abstract world, which has been destroyed beyond the any published word, with all his works suddenly being real life. In human’s living space, she was just a person disappeared from bookstores and public libraries. These who wanted to be “heavy” in life but only in vain in the experiences made him became aware of the essence of end. So when her passion of pursuing life comes to an life along with the human liberation tide. And thus what end, she was just a totally “light” outsider in the world of Kundera advocates in The Unbearable Lightness of life value. The ironical meaning is presented through the Being is that life is without purposes, existing with no “light” and “heave” contrast of life value of Sabina. meaning. He uses irony to give out the declaration against “The lightness of being refers to the playfulness the “prudent” social norms, which can be known as the with which Tomas and Sabina operate on the surface earliest form of the pursuit of “the lightness of being”. of human existence” (Johan, 1995, p.5). From the Milan Kundera put forward a sharp contrast between characters of Tomas and Sabina, Kundera’s life value in the “light” and “heavy” in The Unbearable Lightness of The Unbearable Lightness of Being is reflected in his Being. Kundera once said, “Perhaps the heaviest burden exploration of the meaning of existence. is the most substantial life. And with the heaviest burden, He combines the heavy, serious topics with love our life will be closer to the earth, the reality and the stories, and integrates the structure of the novel with irony. honesty. On the contrary, with no burden, one is lighter With the ironical contrast, Kundera forms the theme of the than air” (Xu, 2003, p.5). Therefore, “light” and “heavy” book as well as the value of him: There is completely no are the most ironical and ambiguous contrast. fixed meaning in the existence of life. Through the body’s “light” and “heavy” feelings on the life value, Kundera then gives the interpretation of “light” - the loss of life value. And the “light” in the 3. MIRRORING PEOPLE’S VIEW OF novel can also be known as the “heavy lightness”, which LOVE refers to a person’s bored, empty, lonely and unbearable Since ancient times, love always plays an attractive role in sense of mood and painful feeling entangled spiritually people’s life. So people are continuously looking for the in the deadlock caused by the negative. Thus people feel appropriate characters like Romeo and Juliet, in the east unbearable heavy under too much lightness. and the west, to write an earthshaking love story. But it is But “heavy” also plays an indispensable part in surprising that Kundera easily abandon the conventional human’s life. And people will find the value of their pattern, letting us really understand the existence of human existence, obtain the sense of satisfied happiness from the love. As in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, he reveals bottom of the heart, and found themselves in the process people’s view toward love under the specific historical of people’s natural power to change and be proud of who circumstance where Soviet invaded Czechoslovakia in themselves are. Take Tereza and Sabina for examples. 1986. Though constantly writing separation of lovers, In the novel, Tereza returned to her hometown owing Kundera’s works expresses the spirit and essence of love to that she could not stand Tomas’s constantly having that love is the combination of spiritual love and physical sex with other women. Tomas was free the first several love (i.e. sex). days his wife Tereza left him. He returned to his single Most of the characters in the novel come from a life and can take the ecstatic breath of freedom. But “On home without any love support. And their parents are Monday, he was hit by a weight the likes of which he had either victims of the loveless marriage or loosing their never been known. The tons of steel of the Russian tanks own interest to love. Thus, broken love experience were nothing compared with it. … Not even one’s own has been embedded in the different levels of people’s pain weighs as heavy as the pain one feels with someone” consciousness, forming a dark background and reflecting (Zhang, 2009, p.27). With the sense of lightness, he hated the characters’ attitude toward love. At the beginning the empty and lonely feeling and eager to return to his of the novel, the characters are more or less losing their home to take the “heavy” responsibility for the family and confidence to love, and as a result, the love, as a routine marriage. work in daily life, becomes a tragic ceremony. Sabina also typifies the ironical meaning of “light” Kundera’s view of love is that love and sex are of and “heavy”. And it is also said that Sabina is Kundera equal importance. However, in The Unbearable Lightness in the novel. Sabina was a painter in pursuit of life, who of Being, his love value is reflected by irony, which is the did not get rid of the bondage of fate. She wanted to be opposite of the conventional idea of love. Because in the “heavy” to chase after the value of life, so she drifted book, it is obvious for people to be aware of that love is from Prague to American, from the east to the west of “heavy” and sex is “light”.
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