Mystification as an artistic strategy in Milan Kundera's work

Čulík, J. (2018) Mystification as an artistic strategy in Milan Kundera's work. Slavonica, 23(2), pp. 113-134. (doi: 10.1080/13617427.2018.1560928)

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Abstract

Using close reading of Kundera's texts, Jan Čulík argues that many arguments in Milan Kundera's literary works are deliberate provocations. Kundera's approach is undoubtedly related to post-modernism, although he used his mystification techniques long before the arrival of postmodernism, as early as in the Stalinist 1950s when he published fake quotes from Lenin in official Stalinist publications. In Jan Čulík's view, it is the purpose of Milan Kundera's systematic use of false facts, distortions and disrupted logic to warn his readers against against the unreliability of words and human communication. Kundera seems to argue that the world in its complexity is basically unknowable and the only thing that is left for us is, in despair, in our ignorace of what is going on around us, to carry out pranks.

Item Type:Articles
Keywords:Milan Kundera, Czech literature, Communism in Eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia, mystification, French literature, France, Czech Republic, Czech fiction.
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Culik, Dr Jan
Authors: Čulík, J.
Subjects:P Language and Literature > PB Modern European Languages
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > Slavonic Studies
Journal Name:Slavonica
Publisher:Taylor & Francis
ISSN:1361-7427
ISSN (Online):1745-8145
Published Online:07 February 2019
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor and Francis Group
First Published:First published in Slavonica 23(2): 113-134
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

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