The Unbearable Inadequacy of Language: Bringing Being into Language with Kundera
CLT 389: Professor DiPiero
12/16/10
“The Unbearable Inadequacy of Language: Bringing Being into Language with Kundera”
Gadamer famously claimed, “Being which is understood is language.” Language is our means to express our thoughts and ideas with one another; we establish our sense of self through our communication and relationships with others. However, while language is the tool through which we communicate, it fails to adequately express all aspects of our being. Jaques Lacan’s “mirror stage” theory explains that the ‘I’ one creates is fractured because it is based upon an external and incomplete image. There are parts of our consciousness that cannot be expressed discursively, which can lead to miscommunication. This part of being that cannot be accessed by language, the Real, can only be grasped through the symbolic. However, one will never master an understanding of the Real. The closest one will come is acknowledging that it exists, and will always be unattainable with the exception of a few moments in which one manages to transcend the limits of language.
The tenuous relationship between the self, the real and its expression in language is exactly what Milan Kundera seeks to address in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The main characters Tomas, Tereza, Sabina and Franz struggle to communicate because of this lack of language to express aspects of their being. Furthermore, like language, the structure of their lives is arbitrary. Language is an arbitrary system of signs- rather than inhering meaning they bestow meaning upon each other through their differences. So too do the lives of the characters depend upon arbitrary coincidences which bring them together. Only then do they become meaningful to each other. However, despite their inability to communicate through language and this arbitrary nature of their lives, there are moments in which they achieve a connection and sense of truth, tapping into Lacan’s idea of the Real. In her essay on the
12/16/10
“The Unbearable Inadequacy of Language: Bringing Being into Language with Kundera”
Gadamer famously claimed, “Being which is understood is language.” Language is our means to express our thoughts and ideas with one another; we establish our sense of self through our communication and relationships with others. However, while language is the tool through which we communicate, it fails to adequately express all aspects of our being. Jaques Lacan’s “mirror stage” theory explains that the ‘I’ one creates is fractured because it is based upon an external and incomplete image. There are parts of our consciousness that cannot be expressed discursively, which can lead to miscommunication. This part of being that cannot be accessed by language, the Real, can only be grasped through the symbolic. However, one will never master an understanding of the Real. The closest one will come is acknowledging that it exists, and will always be unattainable with the exception of a few moments in which one manages to transcend the limits of language.
The tenuous relationship between the self, the real and its expression in language is exactly what Milan Kundera seeks to address in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The main characters Tomas, Tereza, Sabina and Franz struggle to communicate because of this lack of language to express aspects of their being. Furthermore, like language, the structure of their lives is arbitrary. Language is an arbitrary system of signs- rather than inhering meaning they bestow meaning upon each other through their differences. So too do the lives of the characters depend upon arbitrary coincidences which bring them together. Only then do they become meaningful to each other. However, despite their inability to communicate through language and this arbitrary nature of their lives, there are moments in which they achieve a connection and sense of truth, tapping into Lacan’s idea of the Real. In her essay on the
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