Open AccessKundera’s Struggle With Kitsch – on The Unbearable Lightness of Being Once Aga
Author(s) -
Aleksandra Hudymač
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
załącznik kulturoznawczy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2451-4233
pISSN - 2392-2338
DOI - 10.21697/zk.2019ee.01.05
Subject(s) - kitsch , lightness , antinomy , aesthetics , exemplification , relation (database) , art , philosophy , phenomenon , literature , epistemology , computer science , database , computer vision
This paper deals with the Kundera’s most popular novel as a passionate dialogue with kitsch. The Unbearable Lightness of Being is based on the antinomy of lightness and heaviness, as well as kitsch and individuality. The narrator treats his characters as the experimental self and confronts them with the reality created on the cross-scheme of the aforementioned keywords. Kundera interprets the phenomenon of kitsch as a tool to create a totalitarian reality and enslave human beings, but also as something, that can be recognized and domesticated, and then comprises an inalienable part of a human being and its relation to the world. The essay also deals with the Kundera’s famous aversion to adapting his novels for film. He forbade any further film adaptations of his work, having disliked the way The Unbearable Lightness of Being was adapted by Philip Kaufman in 1988