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The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Czech: Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí) is a 1984 novel by Milan Kundera, about two women, two men, a dog, and their lives in the 1968 Prague Spring period of Czechoslovak history.
- Milan Kundera
- 1984
- Overview
- Summary
- Analysis and adaptation
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, novel by Milan Kundera, first published in 1984 in English and French translations. In 1985 the work was released in the original Czech, but it was banned in Czechoslovakia until 1989. Through the lives of four individuals, the novel explores the philosophical themes of lightness and weight.
The story is set against the background of the Prague Spring of June 1968, the Soviet invasion of the country that followed in August, and the aftermath of the crackdown on liberalization. The tale begins on a philosophical note, discussing Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of eternal return (or eternal recurrence). If, as Nietzsche believed, everything in life happens an infinite number of times, causing the “heaviest of burdens,” then a personal life in which everything happens only once loses its “weight” and significance—hence the “the unbearable lightness of being.” Within this discussion, however, the narrator also mentions the opposing theory of Parmenides, who held that light (represented by warmth and fineness) is positive, while the opposite, heaviness, is negative. This conflicting set of views raises the question of which is correct, and against this backdrop the story begins.
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Name the Novelist
The novel pivots on Tomas, a surgeon and serial adulterer who embraces “lightness.” He is willfully free of all heaviness, shunning labels and ideals, and he justifies his physical unfaithfulness (mere sex) on the basis of his emotional faithfulness (his love for his wife). One of his mistresses, Sabina, a free-spirited artist whose sexual obsession rivals Tomas’s, takes lightness to an extreme, betraying others with her complete lack of commitment. On the other hand, Tomas’s wife, Tereza, is heaviness personified and has given herself, body and soul, to her husband. Her love is a binding thing—not bad, just heavy. She also has fervent political ideals, whereas Tomas is held down by none.
By the conclusion of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera held that the theories of both Nietzsche and Parmenides are false, as both the “light” and “heavy” characters meet unhappy fates. Furthermore, he demonstrated how unbearable it is that each choice can only be made once with one possible result and that no one can ever know what other c...
Jan 1, 2001 · Milan Kundera, Michael Henry Heim (Translator), Richmond Hoxie (Reading) In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover.
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Jul 12, 2023 · Czech author Milan Kundera is best known for his book The Unbearable Lightness of Being. After the Soviet occupation, Kundera was blacklisted and banned.
- Andrew Limbong
Mar 11, 1984 · Milan Kundera was an author of poetry, essays, and fiction, including “The Joke” and “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.”. More: Fiction by Milan Kundera, from 1984: “He remained annoyed ...
Jul 12, 2023 · Milan Kundera, the Communist Party outcast who became a global literary star with mordant, sexually charged novels that captured the suffocating absurdity of life in the workers’ paradise of...
Jul 12, 2023 · Czech author Milan Kundera is best known for his book The Unbearable Lightness of Being. After the Soviet occupation, Kundera was blacklisted and banned. He lived in exile in France, where he would later become a citizen.
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