Milan Kundera (1929- )

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/milan-kundera-1929- 1/14

Milan Kundera (1929- )

Born in Brno, Czechoslovakia to anintellectual family

Studied musicology, film, literature andaesthetics at the university

Joined the communist party in 1948, but wasexpelled in 1950 (rejoined in 1956 to 1970)

In 1952 joined the faculty at Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts: lectured onworld literature

Published poems, plays, essays with a clearlycommunist ideology

Lost his teaching position after Sovietinvasion in 1968

Books banned in Czechoslovakia in 1970 Became guest prof. in France (1975) Deprived of Czech citizenship in1979 Became French citizen in 1981

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


His official biography:

“Milan Kundera was born in Czechoslovakia in

1929, and since 1975 he has been living inFrance”

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


Best known novels:

The Joke (1965)

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1978)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984)

Immortality (1988)

Identity (1996)

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


Nietzche and the eternal return

Provides comprehension of what it is to be

Rooted in a symbolic system throughwhich existence can be comprehended:

– Dionysius

– Apollo

– Socrates

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


Dionysian reality: – Undifferentiated being

– Prior to structure and organization – Prior to individuals and classes of individuals

Apollonian reality: – immediately given, present in awareness – Allows for individuation and transformation of

Dionysian reality into appearance of individuals – Imagination – Pre-reflective, but conscious, experiences of existence

Socratic:

– Rational explanation, identification and classification – Reality is mediated by rule-bound concepts and

propositions

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


Existential reality

Consists of Dionysian existence withoutentities, Apollonian imagination withawareness of entities, and Socratic

impulses to define such appearancesobjectively

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


Problem:

Existence = a dynamic potential (energy), which isimmediately and spontaneously actualized in Apollonianimages as well as mediately and intentionally in Socraticconceptual representations

Since appearances are fleeting, we attempt to fix themthrough Socratic reasoning

We abstract them from lived reality and represent themthrough timeless concepts and propositions

Thus, we disconnect them from existential reality andfalsify them

On the other hand, “everything seems far too valuableto be so fleeting: I seek an eternity for everything: oughtone to pour the most precious wines and salves into thesea? My consolation is that everything that has been iseternal” (Nietzche, The Will to Power )

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


Thus:

Socratic reasoning must stay grounded inexistential awareness

Entities must be accepted as differing from

moment to moment (process rather than fixedbeings)

Yet their eternal nature must also be taken intoaccount

Apollonian and Socratic must be united sinceboth the fleetingness of appearances and theneed for eternity are existential

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


Eternal return

Energy is finite Time is infinite Thus, time must be circular

“The idea of eternal return follows from theconjunction of the finitude of energy and theinfinity of circular time, and expressesimmediate existential awareness: thefleetingness of appearances and the need for

sameness in eternity. It thus reflects the originalunity of the symbolic system of Dionysius, Apolloand Socrates which make existential realitycomprehensible”

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


Nietzche, The Gay ScienceThe greatest weight. – What, if some day or night a demon

were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to liveonce more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothingnew in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sighand everything unutterably small or great in your life will have toreturn to you, all in the same succession and sequence – even this

spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this momentand I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upsidedown again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!”

Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth andcurse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced atremendous moment when you would have answered him: “You area god and never have I heard anything more divine.” If this thoughtgained possession of you, it would change you as you are orperhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, “Do youdesire this once more and innumerable times more?” would lie uponyour actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed wouldyou have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing morefervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


How does Kundera reflect these ideas inthe first two chapters?

What does he say about the values of “lightness” and “heaviness”?

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


The creation of Tomas

vs. creation of Tereza

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


What relationship do these ideas have

with the characterization of Tomas andTereza?

Which one is “light” and which “heavy”?

How are they related to the Apollonianand Socratic means of comprehending theworld?

8/12/2019 Milan Kundera (1929- )


Nietzche’s concepts taken from:

Morstein, Petra von. “Eternal Return andThe Unbearable Lightness of Being.”Review of Contemporary Fiction 9.2

(Summer 1989): 65-78.

Documents

Milan Kundera (1929- )