Milan Kundera's 'Being': The Historical Significance of a Transitional Era and an Alternative Path/ মিলান কুন্দেরা-র ‘সত্তা’ : যুগসন্ধিক্ষণের ঐতিহাসিক তাৎপর্য ও এক ভিন্ন মার্গ

Abstract

“And What can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is the itself?”

- The Unbearable Lightness of Being

In 1984, when ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ was published, the author himself had no doubt about the title. However, his friends, translators, and publishers reportedly requested him multiple times to remove or change the final word of the title - Being. They felt that the use of the word ‘being’ in the novel's name unnecessarily initiated a philosophical heaviness. There were concerns that this might negatively affect the book’s sales. But the author remained adamant. As a result, the word Being (or Sattā in Bengali, meaning ‘existence’) remained in both the French and English translations, and eventually, its presence carried through into other European languages as well. From 1979 to 1981, though he spent a few years in France, he was, in the truest sense, homeless and stateless at that time. He clearly stated that he never intended to write psychological or philosophical novels. At the Canter of all of Kundera’s works lies a single word: Being or Existence. That is the concept he sought to explore from different angles.

              According to him, only those literary works are meaningful to humanity that reveal some previously unknown aspect of existence. After being officially exiled by the Communist government, he began, during those few years, to write anew about the existence of modern humans. What made his style distinctive was the way he examined human existence from various perspectives - often through irony or absurdity. Although in interviews he mentioned that humour, irony - the most sublime flavors of literature - were more prominent in earlier writings, and that people today seem to have forgotten how to laugh. His name: Milan Kundera. A writer who spun bizarre tales out of the visible and invisible elements of human life, and made his readers laugh through them - but a writer whom scholars of literature are reluctant to categorize simply as dark humour. At the same time, his works don't fit neatly into parody or comedy either. So what makes Milan Kundera unique? This piece will attempt to shed light on that very question.