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The Czech Republic has its share of controversial writers (not to mention filmmakers - Hrabal, Kafka, and Milan Kundera, whose anti-Party stance tended to get him in trouble with the authorities, and his trouble with the ladies tended to get him labeled as a misogynist (hey, it worked for Hemmingway…). Kundera was an extremely private person and guarded his personal life, which he said was “nobody’s business.” Influenced by Czech structuralism, he thought that literary texts should be perceived on their own merits, without the interference of factors outside the book, like the author’s personal life. Of course, it could be argued that it is impossible to have an objective biography, especially with a writer as dynamic as Kundera.
Kundera was born on 1 April 1929 in Brno, Czechoslovakia. His father was a Czech musicologist and pianist, and Kundera was taught music from a young age; later, musical themes would appear in most of his novels. He completed secondary school in Brno in 1948, then studied literature and aesthetics but soon switched to the Film Academy in Prague, which he graduated in 1952; that year, he was first appointed as a lecturer in world literature at the Film Academy.
Kundera tended to have a complicated relationship with the Communist Party. He belonged to group of young Czechs who didn’t remember pre-war Czechoslovakia, and were mostly influenced by WWII and the German occupation, which propelled them towards Marxism and Party membership. He joined the Czechoslovak Communist Party in 1948, but then was expelled for “anti-party activities” in 1950, an event that would greatly influence him and later appeared in his thinly-veiled autobiographical novel The Joke; he re-joined in 1956 and was re-expelled in 1970. Afterwards, he was also expelled from the University, lived among workmen, played the trumpet in a jazz band and wrote poetry. He eventually became disillusioned with the communist system, and in a conference in 1967 called for freedom of writers, stressing the importance of preserving a separate Czech identity, which could only be done if Czech literature and culture are allowed to develop in complete freedom. Optimistic, no?
Kundera’s first book came out in 1953 (Man, a Wide Garden – a collection of poetry); his poetry displayed a critique of “socialist realism,” though still from a Marxist point of view. He tended to reject political propaganda as a theme and instead stressed the importance of natural, authentic human experience. Later, he began to write plays that were actually staged, in an attempt to humanize communism from within its own framework. Kundera eventually came to disown the first 30 years of his life, and the first thing he wrote of importance to him is the first story in the short story collection Laughable Loves, when his “life of a writer began.”
After the Prague Spring in 1968, Kundera was dismissed from his teaching post at the Prague Film Academy, and his books were banned and withdrawn from bookshops and libraries. Paradoxically, after that he experienced the feeling of total freedom in writing, because he knew no censor would be reading his books. Thus in 1975 he emigrated to France with his wife, where he taught at the University of Rennes, moved to Paris in 1978, where he completed his masterpiece, The Unbearable Lightness of Being in 1982, which won him international recognition.
In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera presents the lack of values as lightness; necessity, weight, and value are three concepts inextricably bound: only necessity is heavy, and only what is heavy has value. Kundera’s critique of human relationships is interlaced with his critique of the communist system, which obviously made him quite unpopular with the authorities at the time (luckily he was hiding away in France). Though largely philosophical and inevitably influenced by Kundera’s surroundings and experiences in Prague and with the Czechoslovak Communist Party, Kundera’s novels remain popular because they elevate the specific contexts and characters to the universal; the problems faced by characters in 1960s-70s Czechoslovakia are not really that different from the problems faced by us today. In fact, it can be argued that Kundera’s novels are driven by exactly what drives most people – inter-human relationships, addictions, and sex.
Since the fall of communism, Kundera has adopted France as his home and rarely goes back to the Czech Republic, even switching to writing in French in 1995. Though works can be philosophical, Kundera himself is not a proponent of any specific school of thinking. | | | |
 | | "I just wanted to say to Kundera, that I read every sentence you write in your novels. All of them. I just thought you should know there are readers out here like me. " | Eric
United States
Jul.19.2010
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "Kundera, since I read your books I know that it will be a magic travel with you.
I love all the books that I found from you, your passionate characters and the melancolic recollections.
I am not exaggerated, you were a turning point in my life. Thank you for teaching ourselves to open our eyes or, at least, to know of your storytales.
With love
Olga MK" | Olga M, Kolchik
Mexico
Jul.14.2010
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "Mr. Kundera, i just want to tell how important was your novel for me, the unbearable lightness of being represents many ideas about life and "love" that i share, i'm a medicine student living in mexico, i don't know if you will read this message, but for me is very importan to tell you the way your work chance my way of thinking, i hope you health and joy, i know it's very difficult to know you, but i would to know you read this.
Thank you so much for writing the unbearable lightness of being" | Antonio Praiz
Mexico
Jun.13.2010
rates this page 5/5 |
| | "I appreciate if someone can send me privately the email of Milan Kundera. I want to ask him for a favor. I know he is a busy person, but this is something important. At least for me. You can reply this message to altec_2k@yahoo.com. I live in California. US." | Altec
United States
May.28.2010
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "Please Kundera call me I must meet you
862-571-7899" | George Whitson
United States
May.10.2010
rates this page 5/5 |
| | "KUNDERAS CREATION. METOMORPHOSIS OF EMOTIONS. IT IS DISCUSS WITH ARTIST AND ART OF DURATION OF METAPHYSICS. BEING , DYING, WRITING.... THAT IS MILAN KUNDERA." | RAKESH NATH / WRITER
India
Feb.09.2010
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "Please, does anyone know Milan Kunderas email or address? I have to support him and his work, otherwise Czech ignorants will loose him." | Ruda
Czech Republic
Oct.21.2009
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "Mr.Kundera is surely a literary legend of our times who will mark the age of modernist writing as we know it. His narrtive modes can inspire a whole new approach to story telling. His theorem of "Litost" in 'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting' is priceless in understanding emotion-politics that we all present and perform in the larger landscape of state-politics.He is truly a prodigy. " | Dilshan Boange
Sri Lanka
Dec.17.2008
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "I teach literature in Mexico. My high school students have loved "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". I just want to say that Sabina¥s longing of the two lighted windows has haunted me always as well as her despair. Thomas, Teresa and Sabina are some of the most memorable characters of all times. To have a bunch of mexican 17 year olds thinking this is their favorite novel of all times is the best reward and author could have." | maria
Mexico
Apr.30.2008
rates this page 2/5 |
| | "Tatyana, i absolutely agree with you and your toughts. Kundra for president..." | Luka
Bosnia
Apr.07.2008
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "Dear Mr. Kundera- I do not know if this message ever will reach you, but I want to express my total admiration of your life and your work!
You are a great writer and phylosopher of our time! I have read some of your books and my project is to read them all, you never repeat, you are always different, full of great stories and great thoughts!
I am Russian, came to the USA 14 years ago, many of events in your personal life and my life are the same, I share most of your thoughts about life in the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.
One more time I would like to say how much I enjoy reading your books, how much pleasure I have reading your book,especially Immortality-how brilliant it is!
Thanks again and I wish you a great health and many new novels and essays.
And of course I would like to meet you and shake your hand with all gratitude!
" | TATYANA
United States
Apr.03.2008
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "What city in France does Milan Kundera live in? I have read and reread all his works and would love to meet him...a previous post says that his favorite cafe is by the castle....what castle is that? Maybe I could be lucky enough to bump into him...." | aleksandra
United States
Mar.12.2008
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "Love his books... would love to meet him.
My favourite is Immortality.
anybody know how to get in touch with Milan Kundera? Please email me privately...
thanks." | Michael
Singapore
Dec.09.2007
rates this page 3/5 |
| | ""Since the fall of communism, Kundera has adopted France as his home and rarely goes back to Czechoslovakia..."
This might be because Czechoslovakia has seized to exist since 1993. Perhaps this should read Czech Republic." | Johnny Dimas
United States
Apr.23.2007
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "Kundera is a very private man, so probably your best bet would be to wander about the city as much as possible cos you won't track him down otherwise. I heard one of his favorite cafes is right by the castle." | Dagny
United States
Feb.21.2007
rates this page 5/5 |
| | "i just like the idea of meetingv Milan Kundera accidentally somewhere in subway or anywhere else, as it is quite impossible to meet him by appointment, i think....he has no web page, no contact, you canm just contact his publisher (Gallimard, for example.....). Any other idea? I am very interested...." | Martin Madera
Czech Republic
Feb.16.2007
rates this page 4/5 |
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