Kundera article (cont.)

[Alexandra Smith]

Quoting Andrey Shcherbenok <avs2120 at COLUMBIA.EDU>:

Russia more often than not perceived
> itself as the essentially Western country protecting Europe from the attacks
> of Mongolian hordes and exporting European civilization to Central Asia et
> al.

- Andrey,

My impression is that the view expressed above represents only a  
certain group of Russian intellectuals advocating Eurasian ideas...
I also think that Kundera's previously expressed views on European  
poetry and European novel help to understand his search for new  
identity conveyed in his recently published article... And if we view  
him as postmodern author, we could detect some polemical touches with  
Masaryk who was part of the modernist paradigm... In the end of the  
day, any writer of significance wants to mould his or her image in  
accordance with his/her creative needs... It seems to me that in this  
particular article Kundera fashions himself in the clothes of  
anti-Solzhenitsyn and/or anti-Havel...since Havel stressed the point  
that living in truth should be considered as integral part of the  
Czech literary tradition...perhaps, Kundera views his own works  in  
metanarrative terms?

All best,
Alexandra


=====================================
Alexandra Smith (PhD, University of London)
Lecturer in Russian
School of European Languages and Cultures
The University of Edinburgh
David Hume Tower
George Square
Edinburgh EX8 9JX
UK

tel. +44-(0)131-511381
fax: +44- (0) 650-3604
e-mail: Alexandra.Smith at ed.ac.uk

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