1《The Unbearable Lightness of Being》简介 《The Unbearable Lightness of Being》是捷克作家米兰·昆德拉的作品，发表于1984年。其被我国读者所了解应在1987年韩少功和韩刚合译该书之后。自此，专家学者们对小说又有了一系列的重译和解读。本文讨论所使用的是Michael Henry Heim所翻译的英文电子版.

《The Unbearable Lightness of Being》的文体学解读

The principal subject of this annual bibliography is the English language scholarly literature of United States Communism (supplemented by some articles from serious journals of opinion, obituaries...

United States Communist History Bibliography 2017 – and Selective International Communist History Bibliography (with a special section on the Russian Revolution)

CHAPTER 16. May ’68, or the Rise of Transpolitical Individualism

Abstract Milan Kundera is one of the most influential writers in contemporary world literature. In his novels, there are many symbolic metaphors related to numbers, dreams, and animals. Combing through the plots of Kundera’s novels, we can discover that among all the numbers, seven and twenty are used most frequently. These two numbers have rich metaphorical meanings. Besides, there are many other digital metaphors in Kundera’s novels, including 6, 4, etc. Apart from number symbols, Kundera has also inserted various kinds of dream symbols in his artistic creation. For Kundera, dreams are not just an individual’s physical and psychological activities, but also a continuation and supplement of real life. It can be concluded that dream narration is a perfect medium for the author to express his philosophical ideology. In addition, dream symbols also serve as an important medium for Kundera to demonstrate narrative skills and present important themes. In Kundera’s novels, animal symbols are integrated with the plots, revealing the personal traits of the relevant characters, and mirroring their spiritual world at the same time. Besides, Kundera also expressed his ecological ethics through the narration of animals’ death. In conclusion, the metaphorical meanings of different symbols in Kundera’s novels play an active role in highlighting the themes, revealing the inner thoughts of the characters, showing the special features of the characters, and expressing the author’s philosophical thoughts. These symbols help Kundera to break the limitations of time and space, which has become an important part of his polyphonic art. What’s more, Kundera has also tried to expand the original metaphorical meanings of these symbols to create some new poetic meanings.

Analysis of the metaphorical meanings of symbols in Milan Kundera’s novels

Contrary to widespread celebrations of the Western sixties as the antiauthoritarian heyday of “shining youthfulness” and “revolutionary lyricism” in contemporary cultures, Milan Kundera’s novel Život je jinde ( Life Is Elsewhere ), written shortly after the Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia in 1968, exposes the narcissistic underside of this subversive epoch through a highly subjective juxtaposition of the two major historical events that happened in the same year in Eastern and Western Europe — Prague Spring and French May ’68. While Kudera’s idiosyncratic historical perspective, which perceived the Prague 1968 as more important than the May uprisings in Paris, may infuriate many Western readers, I argue that the book Život je jinde does not entertain a totally dismissive, unsympathetic attitude towards the revolutionary traditions of modern Europe at large. Relatively ignored by the critical world ever since its publication, Life Is Elsewhere not only outlines some radically alternative visions of the European sixties but also provides innovative ways to problematize the epistemological and ideological confines implicitly attached to the currently reigning liberal-democratic capitalism.

Man-tat Terence Leung

Papers

Utopia and Its Otherwise: Revolutionary Youthfulness, Lyricism, and Alternative Quests for the "East" in Kundera's Life Is Elsewhere