LUBOMÍR DOLEŽEL

A follower of the tradition of the multiperspective novel in modern Czech fiction, Kundera made a substantial contribution to the development of its devices and functions.

The story of The Joke is conveyed by four Ich-narrators. The chief narrator, Ludvík Jahn, is the main protagonist of the novel. Three secondary narrators, Helena, Jaroslav, and Kostka, all have (or had) a close relationship to Ludvík: Helena as his 'victim', Jaroslav as his old classmate, Kostka as his friend and ideological antagonist. (pp. 114-15)

The fundamental problem of the narrative structure of The Joke consists in the selection of the narrators. Why were these characters and not any of the others entrusted with the function of narrating? The selection of narrators was not fortuitous but determined, I believe, by the structure and type of Kundera's novel. Typologically, The Joke can be designated an ideological novel (novel of ideas), i.e. a novel dominated in its structure by the plane of ideas. The narrators of The Joke are representatives of various systems of 'false' ideologies-myths; their narrative monologues are authentic accounts of the social conditions and of the individual directions of the destruction of myths.

The typological character of Kundera's novel determines the selection of narrators not only in a positive but also in a negative sense, i.e. by eliminating certain potential candidates. Two important agents in Ludvík's story—his 'enemy' Zemánek and his love Lucie—are not assigned the function of narrator. Their contributions to the narrative symposium are not required because they have nothing to say about the destruction of myths. (pp. 115-16)

Lucie's absence from the narrative symposium can be related also to a factor of the plot structure of the novel. In the plot construction of The Joke, Lucie assumes the role of 'mystery'. She is the 'goddess of escape' (Ludvík), both by her name, and by her role in Ludvík's personal tragedy. She is a romantic character with a mysterious past and ambiguous motivations. It is obvious that Lucie's own narration, her self-revelation, would destroy the atmosphere of romantic mystery surrounding her personality and actions. (p. 116)

It seems to me that the specific features of the particular narrative monologues reflect various stages of the myth-destroying process which the narrators have reached. Specifically, the structure and texture of the narrative monologue depends on the balance of two functions of narrator, namely the representational and the interpretative function. We assume that the balance of representation and interpretation, different in the particular narrative monologues of The Joke, reflects the narrator's stage in the myth-destroying process.

In Helena's narrative, interpretation dominates over representation. The destruction of Helena's myth occurs solely under external pressures; she herself is incapable of a critical rejection of her myth and its phraseology. Helena's myth remains naive from the beginning to the end. Her faked 'suicide' is a grotesque symbol of the perserverance of a naive myth. Helena's naiveté is also reflected in the style of her narrative. This style is very close to what is called 'stream-of-consciousness style', an uncontrolled, unorganized, spontaneous flow of freely associated motifs, trite phrases and expressions….

Kostka's evangelical myth is just the opposite of Helena's naive ideology. In his narrative performance, however, Kostka is very close to Helena. Interpretation clearly dominates over representation in his narrative. Destruction of Kostka's refractory myth is not completed; it is carried only to the stage of unsolvable dilemmas. Kostka continues to use the terms and phraseology of his impaired myth to interpret his own story as well as the stories of the other protagonists. Because of the dominance of interpretation over representation in Kostka's narrative, Kostka seems to be the least reliable narrator of the symposium. This unreliability is especially revealed in his rendering of Lucie's story. (p. 117)

Whereas in Kostka's narrative the subjective interpretation adjusts the introduced motifs to its own ends, Jaroslav's monologue is built on a parallelism of representation and interpretation. It presents narrated events on two parallel and disjointed levels, that of folkloristic myth and that of 'everyday life'. Jaroslav's archaic myth interprets the motifs of his narrative in the terms, symbolism and phraseology of folk poetry. At the same time, however, the narrator himself is aware of the inadequacy of such an interpretation; Jaroslav comes to regard his myth as 'dreaming' and 'fantasy'. Nevertheless, he still is not ready to give up trying 'to live in two worlds at the same time'. For others, however, Jaroslav's folkloristic interpretations are almost ridiculous; they create shadows of the narrated events which the participants of these events refuse to accept as authentic.

Jaroslav's narrative monologue is very special in that it gives a systematic, one might almost say, scientific account of his myth and its transformations. This component of the interpretative function (interpretation of the interpretation) explains the density of professional language drawn from history and musical theory in Jaroslav's narrative style…. (p. 118)

Jaroslav's expert treatise on Moravian folklore represents one extreme pole of the stylistic variety of The Joke, the other one being represented by the loose and spontaneous style of Helena's monologue….

It is Ludvík who offers the most important contribution to the narrative symposium of The Joke. His monologue dominates the narrative structure of the novel not only because it introduces the most important episodes of the action, but also because it presents the most profound and most conscious destruction of a myth. Mythological interpretation is replaced by critical analysis; a perfect harmony between the narrator's representational 'responsibility' and his interpretative function is thus achieved. This state of harmony is facilitated by two essential features of Ludvík's story. First, in no other story is the destruction of myth so closely connected with personal tragedy. Second, Ludvík's character shows from the very beginning both a Lust zum Fabulieren and an inclination to self-analysis, to critical evaluation of one's own deeds and words. Ludvík excels in the merciless 'tearing away of veils'.

It is, therefore, not surprising that Ludvík is assigned the role of destroying not only his own myth but also of contributing substantially to the destruction of other characters' myths. (p. 119)

In this connection, I would like to mention specifically Ludvík's depiction of the ceremony of 'the welcoming of new citizens into life' (chapter v). Here we find a meticulous application of the device of 'making strange', an applicaton which in its consistency and sophistication is unique in Czech literature. 'Tearing away of veils' is accomplished here solely by a literary device, by the depiction of the scene from a special angle, from the viewpoint of a stranger who does not understand what is going on. This angle renders all actions, words and emotions void, meaningless and disconnected. Only after this absurd depiction is the 'meaning' of the ceremony revealed (in Ludvík's conversation with the official who performed the ceremony).

Ludvík's passion for the 'tearing away of veils' is reflected in his narrative style through relentless enumeration of dreary or ugly details which, appearing sometimes in parentheses, distort every picture….

It would be a great mistake, however, to call Ludvík's narrative style 'naturalistic'. A more detailed investigation of his monologue would reveal a complex, multilayered texture, where detailed descriptiveness with a bias for ugly details represents only one extreme pole; it is balanced by uninhibited poetic language expressed in rhythmical syntax and in symbolic imagery…. (p. 120)

Up to now we have concentrated on the study of correlations between the narrative and the ideological structure of The Joke. The study of these correlations revealed that the form of narrative symposium used in the novel is not mere fashionable whimsy; rather it is a device by which is realized multiple destruction and self-destruction of myths which are, one might say, the real protagonists of this ideological novel. However, the correlations just described represent only one of the functions of the narrative symposium of The Joke; other functions can be revealed when studying correlations between the narrative structure and the structure of fictional time….

The basis feature of fictional time in The Joke is quite typical for modern fiction: the proper chronology of events is done away with and replaced by achronological confrontations and clashes of narrated events occuring on different time-planes, in different time-periods. (p. 121)

All narratives begin in the narrated present … and then return, using the device of flashback or reminiscence, to various periods of the narrated past….

There is no need here to follow in detail the time-pattern of the particular narratives and to describe the shifts from one time-period to another. Let us just note that, with a few exceptions, the narratives do not overlap….

Therefore, I do not hesitate to call the overall pattern of The Joke a linear structure. Moreover, the occasional overlapping and intersections possess, in my opinion, a different function in The Joke, a function which can be described on the level of the narrative structure: they show the limits of credibility, the 'reliability' of particular narrators. (p. 123)

Our analysis of the time-structure of The Joke would be incomplete, however, if we did not deal with the special status of the last, the seventh, chapter. (p. 124)

Various interpretations of … [the] special time and narrative structure of the last chapter of The Joke will certainly be offered. In my opinion, the function of this structure is purely rhythmical: an irregular, but generally rapid pattern of alternating narrative monologues is played off against the slow progress and the monotonous repetition of the leitmotif of the chapter—the ancient folkloristic ritual of the 'Ride of the Kings'. These contrasting progressions create a complex rhythmic pattern which provides an appropriate background for the grotesque culmination of Ludvík's story.

Our investigation into the problems of the narrator in Kundera's novel The Joke has led us to the core of the novel's artistic structure. It has revealed the ingenious network which mutually links all the principal structural components: the idea, the characters, the action, the time, the narrative form. Study of the narrator cuts across the traditional categories of form and content and gives us a rare opportunity to view the literary structure in its entirety. At the same time, we can observe how the structural network leans in a specific direction by the impact of the dominant structural component, the plane of ideas. In a period governed by collective ideologies, Kundera uses the type of the ideological novel and the form of a collective narrative symposium to ensure the best balance between the aesthetic message and the immanent structure of his novel. Following the narrative symposium of The Joke, we travel the peripatetic road leading from the dehumanized mythological past through the tumultuous present of myth-destruction toward a distant, but well-defined ideal of humanity. (p. 125)

Lubomír Doležel, "'Narrative Symposium' in Milan Kundera's 'The Joke'," in his Narrative Modes in Czech Literature, University of Toronto Press, 1973, pp. 112-25.