Kundera Other Works
Other Works by Milan Kundera
Poetry * Man: A Broad Garden, 1953 * The Last May, 1954-1955-1961 * a homage to Julius Fučík, the hero of communist resistance against the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia during the Second World War. The work conforms to the tenets of socialist realism and the strictly official communist version of history. * Monologues, 1957-1964-1965 * a collection of poems in which Kundera highlights betwen lovers. Here he rejects political propaganda and again stresses the importance of natural, ordinary, authentic human experience.
Plays * The Owner of the Keys, 1962 * A young couple is sharing cramped apartment with in-laws during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. One morning, Jiří is contacted on the telephone by Věra, a woman whom he knew when he temporarily became involved with the communist resistance movement. Věra is on the run from the Gestapo and needs Jiří's help. Věra turns up in the flat and raises the suspicion of a Nazi concierge. Jiří is forced to kill him. He hides his dead body in the flat. Now it is necessary for everyone in the flat to run away, before the Gestapo arrives. But Jiří cannot tell his wife and her parents what has happened. Eventually, Jiří and Věra leave on their own, abandoning Alena and her parents to certain death. * Two Ears, Two Weddings (Slowness), 1968 * The Blunder, 1969 * Jaques and His Master, 1971 (Hommage to Diderot in 3 acts)
Fiction: * The Joke, 1965 * In order to win a girl, a young communist student makes an innocent joke. Ludvík Jahn, frustrated by her absence, sends her a provocative postcard. The postcard gives rise to a witchhunt. Ludvík is expelled from the party, forced to leave university and ends up as a member of a penal army unit, working in the mines. Many years later, in the 1960s, Ludvík thinks an opportunity has arisen to revenge himself on a fellow student, Pavel Zemánek, the main perpetrator of his downfall.
Poetry * Man: A Broad Garden, 1953 * The Last May, 1954-1955-1961 * a homage to Julius Fučík, the hero of communist resistance against the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia during the Second World War. The work conforms to the tenets of socialist realism and the strictly official communist version of history. * Monologues, 1957-1964-1965 * a collection of poems in which Kundera highlights betwen lovers. Here he rejects political propaganda and again stresses the importance of natural, ordinary, authentic human experience.
Plays * The Owner of the Keys, 1962 * A young couple is sharing cramped apartment with in-laws during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. One morning, Jiří is contacted on the telephone by Věra, a woman whom he knew when he temporarily became involved with the communist resistance movement. Věra is on the run from the Gestapo and needs Jiří's help. Věra turns up in the flat and raises the suspicion of a Nazi concierge. Jiří is forced to kill him. He hides his dead body in the flat. Now it is necessary for everyone in the flat to run away, before the Gestapo arrives. But Jiří cannot tell his wife and her parents what has happened. Eventually, Jiří and Věra leave on their own, abandoning Alena and her parents to certain death. * Two Ears, Two Weddings (Slowness), 1968 * The Blunder, 1969 * Jaques and His Master, 1971 (Hommage to Diderot in 3 acts)
Fiction: * The Joke, 1965 * In order to win a girl, a young communist student makes an innocent joke. Ludvík Jahn, frustrated by her absence, sends her a provocative postcard. The postcard gives rise to a witchhunt. Ludvík is expelled from the party, forced to leave university and ends up as a member of a penal army unit, working in the mines. Many years later, in the 1960s, Ludvík thinks an opportunity has arisen to revenge himself on a fellow student, Pavel Zemánek, the main perpetrator of his downfall.