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Milan Kundera

ミラン・クンデラ

Milan Kundera

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1929-04-01 （Brno (Královo Pole), Czechoslovakia）
Died
2023-07-11 （Paris, France） age 94
Nationality
Czechoslovakia (until 1979), France (from 1981), Czech Republic (from 2019)
Languages
Czech, French
Residence History
Brno (origin) → Prague (study & early career) → Rennes (teaching) → Paris (long-term residence)

Career

Occupations
Writer, Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
Active Years
1945-2023
Affiliations
University of Rennes (teaching stint)
Influenced By
Robert Musil, Friedrich Nietzsche (philosophy), Miguel de Cervantes, Franz Kafka, Laurence Sterne

Education

Charles University
Musicology (attended lectures)
Period: 1948–1950
Country: Czechoslovakia
Attended lectures in music and composition before moving to FAMU.
Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU)
Film Faculty / Film / Screenwriting
Period: 1950–1952
Year of Graduation: 1952
Country: Czechoslovakia
After graduating, appointed lecturer in world literature at the Film Faculty in 1952.

Awards

Prix Médicis
1973
Work: Life Is Elsewhere (La vie est ailleurs)
Organization: France (Prix Médicis committee)
Result: 受賞
Mondello Prize
1979
Work: The Farewell Waltz
Organization: Italy (Mondello Prize)
Result: 受賞
Jerusalem Prize
1985
Organization: Israel (Jerusalem Prize committee)
Result: 受賞
Austrian State Prize for European Literature
1987
Organization: Austria
Result: 受賞
Herder Prize
2000
Organization: International (Herder Prize committee)
Result: 受賞
Czech State Literature Prize
2007
Organization: Czech Republic
Result: 受賞
Prix mondial Cino Del Duca
2009
Organization: France (Cino Del Duca foundation)
Result: 受賞
Ovid Prize
2011
Organization: Romania (Ovid Prize)
Result: 受賞
Franz Kafka Prize
2020
Organization: Czech Republic (Franz Kafka Prize committee)
Result: 受賞
Golden Order of Merit
2021
Organization: Slovenia (Presidency)
Result: 受賞
Honorary citizen of Brno
2010
Organization: City of Brno
Result: 叙勲／称号授与

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Joke (Žert)

1967 Novel

A satirical early novel targeting totalitarianism in the Communist era; inspired in part by Kundera's expulsion from the Communist Party.

totalitarianismcomic vs tragicindividual vs state

Life Is Elsewhere (La vie est ailleurs)

1973 Novel

A satirical portrait of the fictional poet Jaromil, exploring naïve idealism and political scandal.

youth and idealismpolitics and art

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

1979 Novel / hybrid of novel and short stories

A hybrid work mixing novel, short stories and authorial musings dealing with forgetting and political erasure.

forgettingmemory and historyexile

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

1984 Novel

A philosophical exploration centered on Nietzsche's idea of eternal return, intertwined with the lives of individuals affected by political upheaval in Prague.

existence and fatelove and sexualityphilosophical reflection
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Unbearable Lightness of Being (film) / Philip Kaufman (1988)
Translations
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Slowness (La Lenteur)

1995 Novel

One of his first works written in French, contrasting memories with contemporary events.

memorysense of time

Ignorance (L'Ignorance)

2000 Novel

Focuses on émigrés' return and nostalgia, examining memory and the pain of ignorance.

emigrationnostalgiamemory

The Festival of Insignificance (La fête de l'insignifiance)

2014 Novel

A late novel in which four friends in Paris discuss relationships and the existential predicament of modern life.

insignificancehuman relationshipssatire

Immortality (Nesmrtelnost)

1988 Novel

An allegorical meditation on identity, fame and the idea of personal immortality.

identityfame

Bibliography

  • The Joke (1967)
  • Life Is Elsewhere (1973)
  • The Farewell Waltz (1972)
  • The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979)
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984)
  • Immortality (1988)
  • Slowness (1995)
  • Identity (1998)
  • Ignorance (2000)
  • The Festival of Insignificance (2014)

Adaptations

  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being — 1988 film adaptation (dir. Philip Kaufman)

Translations by Author

  • Translated works of Russian poets (e.g., Mayakovsky) around 1945

Translations of Works

  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being — translated into many languages

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Philosophical prose with authorial digressionsMeta-fictional interruptions and aphoristic chaptersBlend of irony and dark humor
Recurring Motifs
forgetting and memoryexile and returnmusical metaphorslightness and weight of being

Health

  • prolonged illness (details unspecified)
    晩年〜2023年
    Died after a prolonged illness

Legacy

An internationally influential novelist from the late 20th to early 21st century. Known for shifting from Czech to French as a literary language, and for works that explore exile, memory and forgetting.

Archives

  • Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library (Milan Kundera manuscripts)

In Popular Culture

  • Greek newspaper published a special section using Kundera book titles following his death; frequent cultural references in media

Quotes

  • Intimate life [is] understood as one's personal secret, as something valuable, inviolable, the basis of one's originality.
    Source: Interview with Philip Roth, The Village Voice

Trivia

  • His works have been translated into over eighty languages.
  • Stripped of Czechoslovak citizenship in 1979; acquired French citizenship in 1981.
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being was adapted into a 1988 film, which Kundera disliked.