Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Laughter and Forgetting

In The Art of the Novel, Kundera outlines three working principles on novel writing: 1) the novel should disavow any political agenda; 2) the novel should reject kitsch; and 3) the novel should counteract kitsch by using a “polyphonic” style, or, a play among different modes of writing such as essay, dream, and fiction. How do you think Kundera has utilized one or all of these principles in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting?

2 comments:

  1. I think that Kundera utilizes all three of these principles within "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting."
    1 — Through the constant mentioning of political agenda and the woes beset upon the common man because of political agenda, Kundera "disavow[s] any political agenda." It is like the classic anti-hero. Just because an anti-hero is not a hero does not make him still a hero of sorts. By recognizing political agendas and their place/hold in the world, Kundera disavows them. When he talks about the party leader's aide who just disappears he repeats a giant metaphor for the downsides of politics. When he goes on his semi-autobiographical rants about Prague and the destruction of what I will call a pseudo-American Dream (the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness), he disavows politics.
    2/3 — We talked at length about how "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" was polyphonic. If it is polyphonic then it counteracts kitsch and is therefore rejecting it. I think that the telling of an overarching story through several different mini-stories is definitely a counter-disciplinary form. It takes the art of short story telling and mixes it with novel writing. He brings in facts, memories, auto-biography, fiction, dreams, realism, fantasy together in several neatly packed chapters. The anti-correlation of these chapters also feeds into the polyphonic style. They don't relate in any real way, except they all come together to give an overarching story.
    Lastly it would be kinda odd for Kundera to say that these three things make up novel writing and then have it not be in his own writing.

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  2. to the first point of this question, I would reply that Kundera disavowed political agendas through his repetition of themes. By showing similar characters and problems on all sides of the political spectrum, Kundera prevents his work, which leans heavily on politics, from biasing toward one party or another. Rather than supporting any one Party or ideology about politics he uses this political climate as a means to push past the particulars and get at more universal truths about the human condition and society.
    as to the second and third points. Kundera works in a combination of mediums, telling what boils down to the same story over and over again, with completely different names and personalities. much like all ill-fated lover stories are, at their core elements, Romeo and Juliet, which is itself just a retelling of an even older story, Kundera presents a universal theme of people who for one reason or another find themselves outside of a social circle, and retells this story again and again with differing outcomes, personalities and particulars of the societies these people have been ejected from.

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