Milan Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

LA CLUSTER THOUGHTS:

• What is the plot of the book? Is there really one? Does it matter? The non-linear progression of the novel; the organic development of characters and the self-consciousness of the author

• How does Kundera's treatment of music, sex, misunderstanding, and love play into the lightness/heaviness paradigm? Is a life without the “heavy” bonds of attachment to others and presence of “kitsch” impossible? What is the literary and metaphorical meaning of “kitsch”?

• Which characters are the “lightest”? Is Sabina the one to have true “unbearable lightness of being”? What brings the “heaviness” to Thomas,Tereza, and Franz's lives?

• Soul v. Body: Why is Kundera's distinction so poignant? Are Tereza and her mother as different as Tereza would like to think they are? How does the distinction play into the light/heavy paradigm?

• Why is “vertigo” an important motif? From where and where to are the characters falling? Is there a universal pull toward “kitsch” (i.e. ideals, love, “the grand march” of liberalism)? The concept of fortuitous actions bringing “heavy” consequences (e.g. Thomas falling in love with Tereza, Thomas's “Oedipus” article).

• Dreams: Why are some of Tereza's dreams not decidedly differentiated from reality? How does animal symbolism function in these dreams and in the lives of the characters?

• The worth of a philosophical lifestyle and the difference between “philosophical” writers of fiction, like Kundera, and philosophers who write treaties. Which is better?