Identity in The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Abstract

Drawing on essays concerning Mitteleuropa, this article attempts to describe aspects of cultural identity in Milan Kundera‟s novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The historical challenges that this particular geographical and cultural area encountered are reflected in relation to a struggle to maintain a certain cultural identity, encumbered by the Soviet influence in Czechoslovakia. A threatened identity relies on its cultural life, but the characters in Kundera‟s novel also resort to a certain identitary separation and seek for a refuge in love. The Czech writer‟s novels emphasize an unavoidable obsession with the totalitarian space, seen as a trap for an individual‟s identity and personal freedom. Combining the essayistic reflection and a philosophical speculation within a narrative frame, the writer succeeds in rendering something more valuable than a beautiful story: a story brimming with ideas.

Keywords

• mitteleuropa
• identity
• polyphony
• counterpoint
• political novel