Milan Kundera facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Milan Kundera
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Kundera in 1980
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| Born | 1 April 1929 Brno, Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic) |
| Died | 11 July 2023 (aged 94) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Novelist |
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| Alma mater | Charles University Academy of Performing Arts in Prague |
| Notable works | The Joke (in original Žert) (1967) The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (in original Kniha smíchu a zapomnění (1979) The Unbearable Lightness of Being (in original Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí (1984) |
| Notable awards | Jerusalem Prize 1985 The Austrian State Prize for European Literature 1987 Vilenica International Literary Festival 1992 Herder Prize 2000 Czech State Literature Prize 2007 |
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Milan Kundera (born 1 April 1929 – died 11 July 2023) was a famous writer. He was born in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) but later became a French citizen.
Kundera moved to France in 1975. His citizenship from Czechoslovakia was taken away in 1979. He became a French citizen in 1981. In 2019, he was given Czech citizenship again. He saw himself as a French writer. He wanted his books to be considered French literature.
His most well-known book is The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Before 1989, the communist government in Czechoslovakia banned his books. He lived a quiet life and did not often talk to the media. Many people thought he might win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Kundera won several important awards. These include the Jerusalem Prize in 1985 and the Herder Prize in 2000. In 2021, he received a special award from the president of Slovenia.
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About Milan Kundera's Life
Milan Kundera was born in 1929 in Brno, a city in Czechoslovakia. His family was middle-class. His father, Ludvík Kundera, was a well-known music expert and pianist. He also led a music academy.
Milan learned to play the piano from his father. He later studied music and how to compose music. You can find many musical ideas and references in his books. Milan Kundera was also a cousin to another Czech writer, Ludvík Kundera.
When he was a teenager, in 1947, he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. He believed in communism at that time. He was happy when the Communist Party took power in Czechoslovakia in 1948. He later said that communism interested him as much as famous artists like Igor Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso.
In 1947, his first written work was a poem. It was dedicated to his music teacher, Pavel Haas, who died in a Nazi camp. Milan finished high school in Brno in 1948. He then studied literature at Charles University in Prague. Later, he moved to the Film Faculty to study film directing and script writing.
In 1950, his studies stopped for a while. He was kicked out of the Communist Party for "anti-party activities." This event inspired his novel The Joke. After he graduated in 1952, he became a teacher of world literature. He rejoined the Party in 1956 but was kicked out again in 1970.
In 1968, Kundera was involved in the Prague Spring. This was a time when people tried to make changes in Czechoslovakia. But the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and stopped these changes. Kundera still hoped for reforms. However, he eventually gave up on these hopes.
He moved to France in 1975. He taught at the University of Rennes for a few years. His Czechoslovak citizenship was taken away in 1979. He became a French citizen in 1981.
Kundera stayed in touch with his friends in his home country. But he rarely went back to visit. He died in Paris on 11 July 2023, at the age of 94.
Milan Kundera's Books
Even though his early poems supported communism, his novels are not just about politics. Kundera always said he was a novelist, not a political writer. After his book The Unbearable Lightness of Being, political ideas mostly disappeared from his novels. They were replaced by bigger philosophical themes.
Kundera's writing style often mixed stories with deep thoughts. He was inspired by writers like Miguel de Cervantes, who wrote Don Quixote. He also liked Laurence Sterne and Franz Kafka.
He first wrote his books in Czech. But from 1993 onwards, he wrote his novels in French. Between 1985 and 1987, he even checked the French translations of his older books himself. His books have been translated into many languages around the world.
The Joke
His first novel, The Joke (1967), made fun of the totalitarian government during the Communist era. Because he criticized the Soviet invasion in 1968, his books were banned in Czechoslovakia.
Life Is Elsewhere
Kundera's second novel was first published in French in 1973. It came out in Czech in 1979. The story is set in Czechoslovakia around World War II. It tells the funny story of a young, innocent poet named Jaromil. He gets involved in political problems.
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
In 1975, Kundera moved to France. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting was published there in 1979. This book is a mix of a novel, short stories, and the author's thoughts. It explores how Czech people resisted the communist government. A Czech version was published in Canada in 1981.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Kundera's most famous book, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, came out in 1984. The book talks about how fragile a person's life can be. It explores the idea that one lifetime is very small compared to the idea of things happening again and again forever. In 1988, a movie was made based on this book.
Immortality
In 1990, Immortality was published. This was his last novel written in Czech. It was more about the world and philosophy, and less about politics, like his later writings.
Identity
Identity was published in 1998. This novel had a different style from his earlier ones. But it still explored the deep philosophical questions that are common in his writing.
Ignorance
In 2000, Ignorance was published. This novel focuses on themes of moving to a new country and the feeling of culture shock. It was translated into English in 2002.
The Festival of Insignificance
This novel, from 2014, is about four male friends in Paris. They talk about their relationships and the challenges people face in the world. The book received mixed reviews. Some critics felt it was too light or forced in its humor.
Kundera's Writing Style
Kundera often lets the reader know that his characters are made up. He uses a narrator who talks about the characters, even when the story is told from a third-person view. Kundera cared more about the ideas that shaped his characters than how they looked. He believed readers would imagine the physical details themselves.
A writer named François Ricard suggested that Kundera thought about all his books as one big work. Each new book showed the latest stage of his personal ideas. Some of his main themes included being in exile, what it means to be yourself, and history repeating itself.
Many of Kundera's characters seem to show one of these themes. He might even stop following one character and start the story with someone new. He once said that a person's private life is a valuable secret.
Kundera's early novels looked at the sad and funny parts of totalitarianism. But he did not see his books as just political comments. He said that "the condemnation of totalitarianism doesn't deserve a novel." He was more interested in how totalitarianism was similar to the old dream of a perfect society. In such a society, everyone would be united with one goal and belief. When exploring the dark humor of this topic, Kundera was greatly influenced by Franz Kafka.
Kundera also often wrote about music. For example, he analyzed Czech folk music. He would also include musical parts in his books, like in The Joke.
Awards and Honors
In 1985, Kundera received the Jerusalem Prize. The speech he gave when he accepted it is in his book The Art of the Novel. He won The Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1987. In 2000, he received the international Herder Prize. In 2007, he was given the Czech State Literature Prize.
In 2009, he won the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca. In 2010, his hometown of Brno made him an honorary citizen. In 2011, he received the Ovid Prize. An asteroid, 7390 Kundera, discovered in 1983, is named after him. In 2020, he was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize, a Czech literary award.
See also
In Spanish: Milan Kundera para niños
