Kundera, Milan (Vol. 9) - Kundera, Milan 1929?–

Kundera, Milan 1929?–

Kundera is a Czech poet, playwright, novelist, short story writer, musician, and filmmaker. Although his work has been banned in Czechoslovakia since 1967, his satiric fiction is more personal than political. (See also CLC, Vol. 4.)

Kundera's fiction is outspoken, but never polemic. His basic concern is with the tricks people play on themselves rather than on the state, and a man may make a fool of himself under any political system; for Kundera, the central arena for the absurdity of humankind is the relations of men and women. Even though the short stories of Laughable Loves were published in Czechoslovakia in 1968 at the height of liberalization, they are almost entirely apolitical.

Life Is Elsewhere, completed in June 1969 after the reform movement had crumpled, either took more chances or simply led in more dangerous directions. It makes some pointed remarks about imprisonment and torture...

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