Ignoranz
(Milan Kundera)
Emigrants and homeless ones! Milan
Kundera's novel "Ignorance" tells the story of Irena and Josef, who
both left Prague in 1969, after the Russians had occupied their
country. After the drop of the wall in 1989 they decided to go back
home.
Irena and Josef carry the load of nostalgia and ignorance on
their shoulders. As the author etymologically connects
these two he tries to tell the reader that Irena and Josef suffer
because of the pain of ignorance, "not knowing whats going on in my
homeland" and distorted memories. After they lived ex patria for a long
time, they only vaguely remember their past experiences and interpret
them differently than their compatriots, who preferred staying at home.
What can they expect from their home coming? Will they experience the same fate as Odysseus, who realized after a 20-year old
adventure journey that his compatriots did not show
interest in how he lived outside of Ithaka?
Nobody in their homeland wants to know
something about Irena's and
Josef's life in the foreign country. Both suffer the painful truth that
the life continues without one if one emigrates, and that people
only are interested on memories they experienced together if one comes
back home. They do not want to accept that Irena and Josef changed and
to refuse to view them as the ones they are now. Ironically Irena and
Josef stay strangers to each other - even when they meet, fall in love
and separate again.
The topic of the disenchantment of homeland, homesickness and
nostalgia is not everything that this book contains. Just like in his
previous books Milan Kundera takes up a voyeur perspective.
He comments the thoughts and actions of the characters in the novel, reveals their contradictions and ambiguity
and leads the reader with 'intolerable ease' into topics like
politics, history, sex and death. Who all somehow relate to the story and their characters.
Because Milan
Kundera uses an ironical tone in the book,
he created a novel that is far away from being pessimistic. The book is
an homage and a lovehistory about people who emigrated.
Resumos Relacionados
- The Ignrance
- Ignoranz
- L'ignoranza
- The Unbearable Lightness Of Being
- Ruth
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