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The emotional anchoring of the poetics of Milan Kundera

Publication |
2020

Abstract

This study aims to highlight the emotional foundation of the poetics of Milan Kundera, a topic often overlooked as a result of the exaggerated emphasis placed on the intellectual aspect of Kundera's novels. It is evident here that we can infer Kundera's poetics from three sources-lyricism, his dramatic work (plays, the construction of dramatic conflict, the function of on-stage speech) and essay writing.

The study therefore focuses on rehabilitating the lyrical inspiration generally considered to have been surpassed at the moment of Kundera's transition from poetry to novel writing. Here it is possible to demonstrate that not only Kundera's poetic work, but also his specific grasp of the lyrical principle, is present in his later novels.

I characterize Milan Kundera as a writer with a distinctive emotional insight, regardless of whether this is a genuine authorial quality or merely an ability evoked within the world of the novel. That is, in the analysis of Kundera's work, we cannot insist upon any further interpretation.