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| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera, 2004-05-04 When The Unbearable Lightness of Being was first published in English, it was hailed as a work of the boldest mastery, originality, and richness by critic Elizabeth Hardwick and named one of the best books of 1984 by the New York Times Book Review. It went on to win the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction and quickly became an international bestseller. Twenty years later, the novel has established itself as a modern classic. To commemorate the anniversary of its first English-language publication, HarperCollins is proud to offer a special hardcover edition. A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing; one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover -- these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel. Controlled by day, Tereza's jealousy awakens by night, transformed into ineffably sad death-dreams, while Tomas, a successful surgeon, alternates loving devotion to the dependent Tereza with the ardent pursuit of other women. Sabina, an independent, free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals -- of parents, husband, country, love itself -- whereas her lover, the intellectual Franz, loses all because of his earnest goodness and fidelity. In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence we feel, says the novelist, the unbearable lightness of being -- not only as the consequence of our private acts but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine. This magnificent novel encompasses the extremes of comedy and tragedy, and embraces, it seems, all aspects of human existence. It juxtaposes geographically distant places (Prague, Geneva, Paris, Thailand, the United States, a forlorn Bohemian village); brilliant and playful reflections (on eternal return, on kitsch, on man and animals -- Tomas and Tereza have a beloved doe named Karenin); and a variety of styles (from the farcical to the elegiac) to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world's truly great writers. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera, 1987 A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing; one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Novel André Brink, 1998 The postmodernist novel is renowned for the extremes of its narcissistic involvement with language, but in this book the author argues that this self-consciousness has been a characteristic of the novel since its earliest stirrings. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: New York Magazine , 1988-02-15 New York magazine was born in 1968 after a run as an insert of the New York Herald Tribune and quickly made a place for itself as the trusted resource for readers across the country. With award-winning writing and photography covering everything from politics and food to theater and fashion, the magazine's consistent mission has been to reflect back to its audience the energy and excitement of the city itself, while celebrating New York as both a place and an idea. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: La Insoportable Levedad del Ser Milan Kundera, 2022-08-30 Una brillante disección del amor que se ha convertido en uno de los grandes hitos de la literatura contemporánea. Más de 1.000.000 de ejemplares vendidos. Un clásico de la novela contemporánea. La insoportable levedad del ser narra una extraordinaria historia de amor, es decir, de celos, sexo, traiciones, muerte y, también, de las debilidades y paradojas de Teresa, Tomás, Franz y Sabina, cuyos destinos se entrelazan irremediablemente. Los celos de Teresa hacia Tomás, el terco amor de éste por ella -junto con su irrefrenable deseo de otras mujeres-, el idealismo de Franz, amante de Sabina, y la necesidad de Sabina de perseguir una libertad que sólo conduce a una insoportable levedad, se convierten en una reflexión sobre los problemas filosóficos que afectan a nuestra existencia. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: A Study Guide for Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being Cengage Learning Gale, 2015 |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING , 1988 |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Literature Book DK, 2016-05-26 Books, let's face it, are better than anything else. Nick Hornby Turn the pages of The Literature Book to discover over 100 of the world's most enthralling reads and the literary geniuses behind them. Storytelling is as old as humanity itself. Part of the Big Ideas Simply Explained series, The Literature Book introduces you to ancient classics from the Epic of Gilgamesh written 4,000 years ago, as well as the works of Shakespeare, Voltaire, Tolstoy, and more, and 20th-century masterpieces, including Catch-22, Beloved, and On the Road. The perfect reference for your bookshelf, it answers myriad questions such as what is stream of consciousness, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, and what links the poetry of Wordsworth with that of TS Eliot. Losing yourself in a great book transports you to another time and place, and The Literature Book sets each title in its social and political context. It helps you appreciate, for example, how Dickens' Bleak House paints a picture of deprivation in 19th-century England, or how Stalin's climb to power was the backdrop for George Orwell's 1984. With succinct plot summaries, graphics, and inspiring quotations, this is a must-have reference for literature students and the perfect gift for book-lovers everywhere. Series Overview: Big Ideas Simply Explained series uses creative design and innovative graphics along with straightforward and engaging writing to make complex subjects easier to understand. With over 7 million copies worldwide sold to date, these award-winning books provide just the information needed for students, families, or anyone interested in concise, thought-provoking refreshers on a single subject. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (Book Analysis) Bright Summaries, 2018-05-31 Unlock the more straightforward side of The Unbearable Lightness of Being with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, an intricate, cyclical novel which charts the lives of Tomas, a successful surgeon, his wife Tereza, his lover Sabina, and Sabina’s lover Franz. The narrative skilfully blends the characters’ experiences of love, political activism and happiness with philosophical musings on the “lightness” of existence, creating an engaging novel which encourages readers to reflect on the meaning of their own lives. Milan Kundera was born in Czechoslovakia, where he had a successful career as a university lecturer and author until the country was invaded by Soviet forces in 1968 following the Prague Spring. His books were banned by the Communist regime, and he moved to France in 1975. He has won a number of prestigious literary awards, including the Jerusalem Prize (1985) and the Czech State Literature Prize (2007). Find out everything you need to know about The Unbearable Lightness of Being in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: •A complete plot summary •Character studies •Key themes and symbols •Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com! |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The New Salmagundi Reader Robert Boyers, Peggy Boyers, 1996-10-01 'The New Salmagundi Reader' comprises forty-three pieces in subject categories such as the Sense of the Past; Homelands; Writers; The Art Scene; Politics; and Varieties. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: A Study Guide for Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being Gale, Cengage Learning, 2015-09-15 A Study Guide for Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students.This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: Ignorance Milan Kundera, 2003-09-30 A New York Times Notable Book Irena and Josef meet by chance while returning to their homeland, which they had abandoned twenty years earlier. Will they manage to pick up the thread of their strange love story, interrupted almost as soon as it began and then lost in the tides of history? The truth is that after such a long absence their memories no longer match. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: Milan Kundera Harold Bloom, 2009 Presents a collection of critical essays about the work of Milan Kundera. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Unbearable Lightness of Being , 2010 The author examines the book The unbearable lightness of being by the Czech author Milan Kundera and analyzes the books three main characters in psychological terms. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The New Demons Simona Forti, 2014-11-12 The Italian philosopher and author of Totalitarianism “rescues the concept of evil as an element necessary for guidance in political reflection” (Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review). As long as we care about suffering in the world, says political philosopher Simona Forti, we are compelled to inquire into the question of evil. But is the concept of evil still useful in a postmodern landscape where absolute values have been leveled and relativized by a historicist perspective? Given our current unwillingness to judge others, what signposts remain to guide our ethical behavior? Surveying the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western philosophical debates on evil, Forti concludes that it is time to leave behind what she calls “the Dostoevsky paradigm”: the dualistic vision of an omnipotent monster pitted against absolute, helpless victims. No longer capable of grasping the normalization of evil in today’s world—whose structures of power have been transformed—this paradigm has exhausted its explanatory force. In its place, Forti offers a different genealogy of the relationship between evil and power, one that finally calls into question power’s recurrent link to transgression. At the center of contemporary evil she posits the passive attitude towards rule-following, the need for normalcy, and the desire for obedience nurtured by our contemporary mass democracies. In our times, she contends, evil must be explored in tandem with our stubborn desire to stay alive at all costs as much as with our deep need for recognition: the new modern absolutes. A courageous book, The New Demons extends an original, inspiring call to ethical living in a biopolitical age. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: Translating Milan Kundera Michelle Woods, 2006-05-04 Translating Milan Kundera uses new archival research to view the wider cultural scope of the translation issue involving the controversies surrounding Kundera’s translated novels. It focuses on the language of the novels, Kundera’s ‘lost’ works, writing as translation, interpretation, exile, censorship and the social responses to translated fiction in the Anglophone world. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Book Shopper Murray Browne, 2009 In search of a good book? Browne provides rich leads and much wit. Go, shop, read! |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: Milan Kundera Known and Unknown Karen von Kunes, 2024-11-14 This collection of essays offers crucial and luminous insights into one of the best-known Czech authors, Milan Kundera, including his lesser known works. With essays that focus on Kundera's poetry and plays, his last four novels written in French, and his nonfiction writings on the novelistic form and translation, Milan Kundera Known and Unknown explores the complex and productive career of this globally recognized author. The approach begins by examining Kundera's distinctive literary style, and then how his voice radiated outward from the small communist country of Czechoslovakia to the world. Starting as a poet and playwright, Kundera transcended the Czech literary scene and rose to global prominence with his novelistic style of variations, paradoxes, humor, and clairvoyance into human relationships mixed with political tensions. His multi-dimensional existential topics introduced complex novelistic characters that have reached a large audience and remain evocative. Kundera also critically commented on creative works – his own and of others – thus contributing a unique approach to a specific aesthetic ideal and within the masterworks of world-renowned authors. Chapters on Kundera's aesthetics and form, his philosophical leanings, his relationship to the burgeoning concept of “world literature,” and translations of his writings offer new perspectives on his life's work. These insights shed light on Kundera's understudied works, such as his early poetry and his recent French novels, making connections between his early and later writing, and cementing his literary legacy for English-language audiences. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: the art of memory in exile vladimir nabokov & milan kundera hana pichova, |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Books They Gave Me Jen Adams, 2012-11-06 THE BOOKS THEY GAVE MEcollects stories of books given and books received by loved ones. The gift of a book can be surprisingly intimate, revealing much about a relationship. An ill-chosen book can serve as a harbinger of doom, while a perfect selection can fill one with hope for the future. Together, these stories form a revealing look at love, loss, and our literary tastes. Originally focusing on romantic gifts, THE BOOKS THEY GAVE ME quickly expanded to gifts from parents and grandparents, siblings and friends. There's the couple who tried to read Ulyssestogether over the course of their long distance relationship, and ultimately never finished it. There's the guy who bristled when he received Joy of Cooking from his boyfriend, until he realized that the gift didn't represent a demand for better meals, but a dream for a beautiful life together, throwing cocktail parties for a warm group of friends. These are stories of people falling in love, regretting mistakes, and finding hope through books. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Book of Imitation and Desire: Reading Milan Kundera with Rene Girard Trevor Cribben Merrill, 2013-03-14 Trevor Cribben Merrill offers a bold reassessment of Milan Kundera's place in the contemporary canon. Harold Bloom and others have dismissed the Franco-Czech author as a maker of “period pieces” that lost currency once the Berlin Wall fell. Merrill refutes this view, revealing a previously unexplored dimension of Kundera's fiction. Building on theorist René Girard's notion of “triangular desire,” he shows that modern classics such as The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting display a counterintuitive-and bitterly funny-understanding of human attraction. Most works of fiction (and most movies, too) depict passionate feelings as deeply authentic and spontaneous. Kundera's novels and short stories overturn this romantic dogma. A pounding heart and sweaty palms could mean that we have found “the One” at last-or they could attest to the influence of a model whose desires we are unconsciously borrowing: our amorous predilections may owe less to personal taste or physical chemistry than they do to imitative desire. At once a comprehensive survey of Kundera's novels and a witty introduction to Girard's mimetic theory, The Book of Imitation and Desire challenges our assumptions about human motive and renews our understanding of a major contemporary author. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera, 2023-03-28 An absolutely dazzling entertainment. . . . Arousing on every level—political, erotic, intellectual, and above all, humorous. —Newsweek The Book of Laughter and Forgetting calls itself a novel, although it is part fairy tale, part literary criticism, part political tract, part musicology, and part autobiography. It can call itself whatever it wants to, because the whole is genius. —New York Times Rich in its stories, characters, and imaginative range, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is the novel that brought Milan Kundera his first big international success in the late 1970s. Like all his work, it is valuable for far more than its historical implications. In seven wonderfully integrated parts, different aspects of human existence are magnified and reduced, reordered and emphasized, newly examined, analyzed, and experienced. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present Marie Diamond, 2020-07-01 In recent years, schools have started introducing more inclusive syllabi emphasizing the works and ideas of previously overlooked or underrepresented writers. Readers of all ages can now explore the rich contributions of writers from around the world. These writers have various backgrounds, and unlike most writers from the U.S. or the United Kingdom, information on them in English can be difficult to find. Encyclopedia of World Writers: 1800 to the Present covers the most important writers outside of the U.S., Britain, and Ireland since 1800. More than 330 insightful, A-to-Z entries profile novelists, poets, dramatists, and short-story writers whose works are anthologized in textbooks or assigned in high school English classes. Entries range in length from 200 to 1,000 words each and include a biographical sketch, synopses of major works, and a brief bibliography. Dozens of entries are new to this edition and many existing entries have been updated and significantly expanded with new Critical Analysis sections. Coverage includes: Chinua Achebe Margaret Atwood Roberto Bolaño Albert Camus Khalid Hosseini Victor Hugo Mohammad Iqbal Franz Kafka Stieg Larsson Mario Vargas Llosa Naghib Mahfouz Gabriel García Márquez Kenzaburo Oe Marcel Proust Leo Tolstoy Emile Zola and more. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: Migration and Literature S. Frank, 2008-09-29 Migration and Literature offers a thought-provoking analysis of the thematic and formal role of migration in four contemporary and canonized novelists. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: Transformative Fictions Daniel Just, 2022-07-27 Transformative Fictions: World Literature and Personal Change engages with current debates in world literature over the past twenty years, addressing the nature of literary influence in centers and peripheries, the formation of transnational literary and pedagogical canons, and the role of translation and regionalism in how we relate to texts from around the globe. The author, Daniel Just, argues for a supranational but sub-global perspective of regions that emphasizes practical reasons for reading and focuses on the potential of literary texts to stimulate personal transformation in readers. One of the recurring dilemmas in these debates is the issue of delimitation of world literature. The trouble with the world as a frame of reference is that no single researcher is bound to have the in-depth knowledge and linguistic skills to discuss works from all countries. In response, this book revives literary theory and recasts it for the purposes of world literature, by making a case for the continuing relevance of literature in the age of new media. With the examples of fictional and nonfictional writings by Milan Kundera, Witold Gombrowicz and Bohumil Hrabal, Just shows that regional literatures offer differing methods of activating readers and thereby prompting personal change. This book would be of general interest to anyone who wants to explore personal change through literature but is particularly indispensable for literary professionals, researchers, and postgraduate and graduate students. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Novel Cure Ella Berthoud, Susan Elderkin, Indrajit Hazra, 2014-08-01 Whether you have a stubbed toe or a stubborn case of the blues, within these pages you’ll find a cure in the form of a novel – or a combination of novels – to help ease your pain. You’ll also find advice on how to tackle common reading ailments – such as what to do when you feel overwhelmed by the number of books in the world, or if you have a tendency to give up halfway through. When read at the right moment in your life, a novel can – quite literally – change it, and The Novel Cure is a reminder of that power. Written with authority, passion and wit, here is a fresh approach to finding new books to read, and an enchanting way to revisit the books on your shelves. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Conversations Michael Ondaatje, 2011-04-13 The Conversations is a treasure, essential for any lover or student of film, and a rare, intimate glimpse into the worlds of two accomplished artists who share a great passion for film and storytelling, and whose knowledge and love of the crafts of writing and film shine through. It was on the set of the movie adaptation of his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, that Michael Ondaatje met the master film and sound editor Walter Murch, and the two began a remarkable personal conversation about the making of films and books in our time that continued over two years. From those conversations stemmed this enlightened, affectionate book—a mine of wonderful, surprising observations and information about editing, writing and literature, music and sound, the I-Ching, dreams, art and history. The Conversations is filled with stories about how some of the most important movies of the last thirty years were made and about the people who brought them to the screen. It traces the artistic growth of Murch, as well as his friends and contemporaries—including directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Fred Zinneman and Anthony Minghella—from the creation of the independent, anti-Hollywood Zoetrope by a handful of brilliant, bearded young men to the recent triumph of Apocalypse Now Redux. Among the films Murch has worked on are American Graffiti, The Conversation, the remake of A Touch of Evil, Julia, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather (all three), The Talented Mr. Ripley, and The English Patient. “Walter Murch is a true oddity in Hollywood. A genuine intellectual and renaissance man who appears wise and private at the centre of various temporary storms to do with film making and his whole generation of filmmakers. He knows, probably, where a lot of the bodies are buried.” |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Rough Guide to Prague Rob Humphreys, Tim Nollen, 2002 THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PRAGUE is the insider's handbook to the Czech capital. Features include: Entertaining accounts of all the sights, from the vast castle complex to the modern art museum - plus excursions outside the city. Extensive listings of the best places to stay, eat and drink, and the last word on the city's nightlife. Incisive background on Prague's culture and history, ranging from new wave cinema to the story of the Velvet Revolution. Full-colour map section plus 20 other maps and plans. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Poetics of International Politics Milan Babík, 2018-10-26 A cutting-edge contribution to the aesthetic turn in international relations scholarship, this book exposes the role of poetic techniques in constituting the reality of international politics. It has two symmetrical goals: to illuminate the nonempirical fictions of factual international relations literature, and to highlight the real factual inspirations and implications of contemporary international relations fiction. Employing narrative theory developed by Hayden White, the author examines factual and fictional accounts of world affairs ranging from the anarchy narrative, central to mainstream international relations research, to novels by Don DeLillo and Milan Kundera. Chapters analyzing factual literature flesh out its unacknowledged inventions, while those dedicated to fiction explain its political roots and agenda. Throughout, the distinction between factual and fictional representations of international relations breaks down. Social-scientific narratives emerge as exercises in rhetoric: the art and politics of persuasion through language. Artistic narratives surface as real pedagogical lessons and exercises in political activism. The volume challenges the autonomy of academic international relations as an exclusive purveyor of serious knowledge about world affairs and calls for active engagement with literary art. It will be of interest to scholars of International Relations, Political Theory, Historiography, Cultural Theory, and Literary Studies and Criticism. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: Philip Kaufman Annette Insdorf, 2012-02-28 American director Philip Kaufman is hard to pin down: a visual stylist who is truly literate, a San Franciscan who often makes European films, he is an accessible storyteller with a sophisticated touch. Celebrated for his vigorous, sexy, and reflective cinema, Kaufman is best known for his masterpiece The Unbearable Lightness of Being and the astronaut saga The Right Stuff. In this study, Annette Insdorf argues that Kaufman's cinema is both stylistically and philosophically rich and that his versatility is what distinguishes him as an auteur. She demonstrates Kaufman's skill at adaptation and how he finds the precise cinematic device for a story drawn from seemingly un-adaptable sources by using his cinematic eye to translate the authorial voice in many of the books that serve as inspiration for his films. Closely analyzing his films to date, Insdorf links Kaufman's versatile cinema by exploring the recurring and resonant themes of sensuality, artistic creation, and manipulation by authorities. She illustrates while there is no overarching label or bold signature that can be applied to his oeuvre, there is a consistency of themes, techniques, images, and preoccupations that permeates all of Kaufman's works. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Elemental Passions of the Soul Poetics of the Elements in the Human Condition: Part 3 Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, 2012-12-06 |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Invasion of Books in Peripheral Literary Fields Petra Broomans, Ester Jiresch, 2011 Cover -- Table of contents -- Preface -- The Invasion of Books -- Contra-flows in Literary Journalism? Coverage of Foreign, Non-Western and Ethnic Minority Literatures in French, German, Dutch and American Newspapers, 1955-2005 -- Monsters and Blowflies. The Representation of Nynorsk and its Speakers in Three Norwegian Newspapers -- The Colour of Female Choice. Czech and Flemish Women's Magazines as Cultural Patchworks -- A New Golden Era for Finnish Poetry? Nuoren Voiman Liitto and Nihil Interit as Cultural and Literary Transmitters in the 1990s and 2000s -- In the Wake of a Nobel Prize. On Modern Icelandic Literature in Swedish1940-1969 -- Ways of Being. Familiarity with Playwrights as Expression of Taste -- Transmitter Profiles, Power Circles and Canonising Cultural Transfer. The Case of Annie Posthumus - the First Modern Scandinavist within Dutch Academia -- A Foreigner to Her Mother Tongue. Zenta Mauriņa (1897-1978) and Konstantin Raudive (1909-1974) as German-speaking Latvian Writers in Swedish Exile -- About the Authors -- Bibliography -- Index |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (SparkNotes Literature Guide) SparkNotes, 2014-08-12 The Unbearable Lightness of Being (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by Milan Kundera Making the reading experience fun! Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster. Geared to what today's students need to know, SparkNotes provides: *Chapter-by-chapter analysis *Explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols *A review quiz and essay topicsLively and accessible, these guides are perfect for late-night studying and writing papers |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Novel Tim Parks, 2015-07-16 The Literary Agenda is a series of short polemical monographs about the importance of literature and of reading in the wider world and about the state of literary education inside schools and universities. The category of 'the literary' has always been contentious. What is clear, however, is how increasingly it is dismissed or is unrecognised as a way of thinking or an arena for thought. It is sceptically challenged from within, for example, by the sometimes rival claims of cultural history, contextualized explanation, or media studies. It is shaken from without by even greater pressures: by economic exigency and the severe social attitudes that can follow from it; by technological change that may leave the traditional forms of serious human communication looking merely antiquated. For just these reasons this is the right time for renewal, to start reinvigorated work into the meaning and value of literary reading. The Novel: A Survival Skill is the fruit of a lifetime's search for a different, more immediate, but again systematic and serious way of talking about literature. Developed over many years, it offers a completely new account of the relationship between a writer, his or her work, and the reader. As such it radically undermines traditional literary criticism and the various criteria used for evaluating a work of fiction. Drawing on ideas from systemic psychology, Tim Parks suggest that both the content and style of a novelist's work, the kind of stories told and the way in which they are told, form part of a more general strategy or simply habit of communication that the novelist has learned within his or her family of origin. The reader reacts to these in very much the same way he or she would react to the same communicative strategy in a real life encounter, different readers reacting differently depending on their own backgrounds and habits of communication. Looking at the different value structures that can dominate in any family—good/evil, independence/dependence, success/failure, belonging/exclusion—this book looks at how a number of major writers position themselves within these value structures, how this positioning is manifest in their writing, and how readers have responded to this depending on their own positioning in the same semantics. Thomas Hardy, for example, a man eager to believe himself courageous but terrified of the consequences of any socially 'unacceptable' behaviour, constructs stories which are courageous in their willingness to debate difficult issues, but which constantly suggest that any attempt to behave courageously is condemned to disaster. Hardy as it were imprisons himself in a world where it is folly to take risks. He is thus exceedingly conservative in his life, while at the same time able to think of himself as courageous in his writing. The Novel: A Survival Skill looks at the way different readers in different periods respond to this depending on their own position with regard to fear, courage, social convention and so on. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Purloined Clinic Janet Malcolm, 2013-01-23 The Purloined Clinic is a retrospective of essays, reviews, and reports that reflect the range and depth of Janet Malcolm's engagement with psychology, criticism, art, and literature. She examines aspects of that absurdist collaboration, the psychoanalytic dialogue, from which come small, stray sell recognitions that no other human relationship yields, brought forward under conditions . . . that no other human relationship could survive. She addresses such subjects as Tom Wolfe's vendetta against modern architecture, Milan Kundera's literary experiments, and Vaclav Havel's prison letters. She explores the somewhat deflated world of post-revolutionary Prague, guides us through the labyrinthine New York art world of the eighties, and takes us behind the one-way mirror of Salvador Minuchin's school of family therapy. And to each subject she brings the incisive skepticism and dazzling epigrammatic style that are her hallmarks. “Why don’t more people write like [Malcolm]? . . . She is cast from the mold of the Eastern European intellectual: beholden to modernism. as familiar with Kundera’s exile as she is with Freud’s Vienna. This sensibility must grant her the detachment she sometimes so mercilessly employs, but it also gives her an unassailable passion for getting to the center of things.” —Boston Globe |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden: A Novel By Jonas Jonasson (Trivia-On-Books) Trivion Books, 2016-09-08 Trivia-on-Book: The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson Take the fan-challenge yourself and share it with family and friends! The Girl who Saved the King of Sweden, Jonas Jonasson’s second novel, narrates a story about racism, romance, and politics. The plot begins in the year 1961 where the main protagonist, Nombeko Mayeki, was born in a shack in Soweto. She managed to escape poverty and made her way to the top, destined to become one of the chief advisors of a renowned secret project. In the 1980s, South Africa manufactured six nuclear missiles. However, they voluntarily surrendered the six bombs and dismantled the program in 1994. The story is centered around the seventh nuclear missile that the world didn’t know existed. Nombeko was so much involved with it that she was sought by agents from Israel and South Africa. Nombeko reached a point where she took hold of the bomb, placing the fate of the world in her hands. The Girl who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson became a New York Times bestseller. You may have read the book, but not have liked it. You may have liked the book, but not be a fan. You may call yourself a fan, but few truly are. Are you a fan? Trivia-on-Books is an independently curated trivia quiz on the book for readers, students, and fans alike. Whether you're looking for new materials to the book or would like to take the challenge yourself and share it with your friends and family for a time of fun, Trivia-on-Books provides a unique approach to The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson that is both insightful and educational! Features You'll Find Inside: • 30 Multiple choice questions on the book, plots, characters and author • Insightful commentary to answer every question • Complementary quiz material for yourself or your reading group • Results provided with scores to determine status Promising quality and value, come play your trivia of a favorite book! |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: Paradoxes of Emotion and Fiction Robert J. Yanal, 1999-10-15 How can we experience real emotions when viewing a movie or reading a novel or watching a play when we know the characters whose actions have this effect on us do not exist? This is a conundrum that has puzzled philosophers for a long time, and in this book Robert Yanal both canvasses previously proposed solutions to it and offers one of his own. First formulated by Samuel Johnson, the paradox received its most famous answer from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who advised his readers to engage in a willing suspension of disbelief. More recently, philosophers have argued that we are irrational in emoting toward fiction, or that we do not emote toward fiction but rather toward factual counterparts, or that we do not have real but only quasi-emotion toward fiction, generated by our playing games of make-believe. All of these proposed solutions are critically reviewed. Finding these answers unsatisfactory, Yanal offers an alternative, providing a new version of what has been dubbed thought theory. On this theory, mere thoughts not believed true are seen as the functional equivalent of belief at least insofar as stimulating emotion is concerned. The emoter's disbelief in the actuality of components of the thoughts must be rendered relatively inactive. Such emotion is real and typically has the character of being richly generated yet unconsummated. The book extends this theory also to resolving other paradoxes arising from emotional response to fiction: how we feel suspense over what comes next in a story even when we are re-reading it for a second or third time; and how we take pleasure in narratives, such as tragedy, that excite unpleasant emotions such as fear, pity, or horror. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Way You Make Me Feel Nina Sharma, 2024-05-07 “Remarkable . . . The Way You Make Me Feel affirms that Black and Brown existence in America comes with no guarantee of collective solidarity, no innate promise of racial equality. The path to justice is uncertain, Sharma reminds us, and we must each work hard—and be bold enough to sacrifice our own comfort—to actualize it.” —Washington Post A hilarious and moving memoir in essays about love and allyship, told through one Asian and Black interracial relationship When Nina Sharma meets Quincy while hitching a ride to a friend’s Fourth of July barbecue, she spots a favorite book, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, in the back seat of his cramped car, and senses a sadness from him that’s all too familiar to her. She is immediately intrigued—who is this man? In The Way You Make Me Feel, Sharma chronicles her and Quincy’s love story, and in doing so, examines how their Black and Asian relationship becomes the lens through which she moves through and understands the world. In a series of sensual and sparkling essays, Sharma reckons with caste, race, colorism, and mental health, moving from her seemingly idyllic suburban childhood through her and Quincy’s early sweeping romance in the so-called postracial Obama years and onward to their marriage. Growing up, she hears her parents talk about the racism they experienced at the hands of white America—and as an adult, she confronts the complexities of American racism and the paradox of her family’s disappointment when she starts dating a Black man. While watching The Walking Dead, Sharma dives into the eerie parallels between the brutal death of Steven Yeun’s character and the murder of Vincent Chin. She examines the trailblazing Mira Nair film Mississippi Masala, revolutionary in its time for depicting a love story between an Indian woman and a Black man on screen, and considers why interracial relationships are so often assumed to include white people. And as she and Quincy decide whether to start a family, they imagine a universe in which Vice President Kamala Harris could possibly be their time-traveling daughter. Written with a keen critical eye and seamlessly weaving in history, pop culture, and politics, The Way You Make Me Feel reaffirms the idea that allyship is an act of true love. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: Dis-orientations Marcia Sa Cavalcante Schuback, Tora Lane, 2014-12-23 This is an edited collection of original essays that combine philosophy, phenomenology, and literature to reflect on modern ideas about orientation and disorientation, grounds and groundlessness. |
| the unbearable lightness of being book: The Ninth Hour Harrison Mujica-Jenkins, 2008-10-03 The ninth hour is the hour in which the sun possesses us and we abandon ourselves to its burning, blinding flame to think with a light so bright. At noon we come out of Plato's cave and stare into the sun: the unknown gazing into the unknown. These writings do not owe anything to the philosophical sun, the good sun of Plato that erases all differences, the good sun of enlightened reason that is oblivious to the knowledge of the madman. They are writings born beyond the sun, on the rotten side of the sun, unprotected by the shadow of logic; writings come out of darkness, of the spiritual umbra of he who stares directly at the sun. And, more specifically, writings begotten out of the spiritual nigrescence of whom writes at the ninth hour, at high noon. |
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Wikipedia
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Czech: Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí) is a 1984 novel by Milan Kundera about two women, two men, a dog, and their lives in the 1968 Prague …
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera - Goodre…
Jan 1, 2001 · In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his …
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Full Book Summary
The uncertain existence of meaning, and the opposition of lightness and heaviness, the key dichotomy of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, sets the stage for the entire …
The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel (Harper Perennial …
Oct 27, 2009 · In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, acclaimed author Milan Kundera tells the story of two couples, a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for …
The Unbearable Lightness of Being | Plot, Characters, & Facts
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, novel by Milan Kundera, first published in 1984 in English and French translations. In 1985 the work was released in the original Czech, …
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Wikipedia
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Czech: Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí) is a 1984 novel by Milan Kundera about two women, two men, a dog, and their …
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera - Goo…
Jan 1, 2001 · In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her …
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Full Book Summary
The uncertain existence of meaning, and the opposition of lightness and heaviness, the key dichotomy of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, sets …
The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel (Harper Peren…
Oct 27, 2009 · In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, acclaimed author Milan Kundera tells the story of two couples, a young woman in love with …
The Unbearable Lightness of Being | Plot, Characters, & Fa…
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, novel by Milan Kundera, first published in 1984 in English and French translations. In 1985 the work was …
