Dumitru Tucan, Milan Kundera. O „mitologie“ personală a romanului
Milan Kundera: A Personal Mythology of the Novel
Milan Kundera is not only one of the most celebrated European novelists of the 20th century, but also one of the most insightful theorists of the novel as a polymorphous cultural phenomenon. This essay analyses Kundera’s theoretical writings (The Art of the Novel, Testaments Betrayed, The Curtain) as a “personal mythology” of the European novel. The founding hero of this “mythology” is Miguel de Cervantes who shaped the novel as an exploratory instrument of human contradictions and the world’s ambiguities. Kundera’s narrative rewriting of the history of the novel is in fact a history of the successive crises of the European culture throughout its modern history and, from this perspective, the novel is seen as a powerful critical instrument.
Keywords: Milan Kundera, theory of the novel, history of the novel, Cervantes, Don Quijote
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