Life Is Elsewhere (Masterplots II: World Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Milan Kundera
- First Published: 1973
- Type of Work: Satiric Kunstlerroman
- Time of Work: c. the 1930’s and the 1940’s
- Setting: Prague, Czechoslovakia
- Principal Characters: Jaromil, Maman, The poet’s Father, The janitor’s Son, The Artist, Xavier, The redheaded Girl, The beautiful Filmmaker, The middle-aged man
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman, Autobiographical fiction, Satire
- Subjects: 1950’s, Mothers, Parents and children, Love or romance, 1940’s, Poetry or poets, 1930’s, Jealousy, envy, or resentment, Filmmaking or filmmakers, Czechoslovakia or Czechoslovakians
- Locales: Czechoslovakia, Prague, Czechoslovakia
The Novel
Life Is Elsewhere narrates the fictional biography of Jaromil, showing the stages of his development and along the way parodying many of the cliches surrounding the romantic figure of the poet (documented by intermittent references to numerous actual poets). For example, Jaromil could have been conceived on a park bench, on a soiled bed, or in a romantic forest near Prague. His mother, Maman, who plays an overwhelming role in molding the young poet, decides that it was in the romantic forest. Other circumstances of Jaromil’s premarital conception,...
[The entire page is 1898 words long]
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