Memory and Forgetting in the Works of Milan Kundera
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Abstract
The main theme in Milan Kundera’s works is the conflict between memory and forgetting in defining individual and collective identity and reshaping it by the individual and the authority. He seeks to explore the interconnected lives of many Czech individuals who struggled to overcome or to forget painful experiences in Czechoslovakia, his homeland and the homeland of his fictional characters, after World War II, in the aftermath of the purges carried out by Russia in Czechoslovakia. Therefore, Kundera attempts to recover the historical truth from the forced forgetting imposed by the authority.
After the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Milan Kundera was banned from publishing in his homeland, his books were withdrawn and banned in Russia, and he lost his teaching position at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts. Therefore, it can be said that he relied directly on his personal knowledge of tyranny and the repressive practices of the authority. Thus, the conflict between the private memories of the individual and the general history of his country, Czechoslovakia, and its citizens forms the most important foundation in all his works. He does not distance himself from the characters he created in his imagination; rather, he speaks about his personal history in some parts of the book. For instance, he worked in a communist newspaper as an expert in horoscopes. He also speaks about his relationship with his late father. According to Kundera’s account, he was a man erased from history
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