Kundera article (cont.)

[David Powelstock]

First, Kundera avowedly and emphatically does not care whether anyone reads
his works in Czech. He doesn't even write them in Czech anymore. That's what
I take to be his point, right or wrong.

Second, while I personally am intrigued by the idea of studying Kundera and
others in the context of "Soviet bloc literature," it is probably Kundera's
worst nightmare. 

The elephant in the room is this: Kundera wants to be thought of as a "World
Writer," and this drives much of what he says and does. His explicit reason
for writing in French is that there are more translators from French into
other languages than from Czech. It's a pretty consistent position, if
somewhat megalomaniacal.

His antipathy toward being associated with "the Russians" is a bit more
peevish, and it leads him to a position that seems somewhat in tension with
"World Literature" program: as an alternative to reading Czech literature in
a (non-existent) "Slavic" context, he considers it more appropriate to read
it in a "Central European" context. I can tell you from personal teaching
experience that he is absolutely right. I have for some years taught a
contemporary "Central and East European" literature. I include Czech,
Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, and others. The title was established by
committee, so to speak, and for the same reason I include a soupcon of
Russian lit. (My ideal would be to call it Central European and drop the
Russian out of it.) The Russian stands out like a sore thumb in a course of
study that regularly surprises me with newer and deeper threads of
coherence.  But what Kundera really wants, I suspect, is to be seen as
utterly transcending geography. His Russophobic peeve leads him to stray
from this a bit in the article, is how I read it.

Cheers,
David

David Powelstock 
Asst. Prof. of Russian & East European Literatures 
Undergraduate Advising Head, Russian Language and Literature 
Chair, Program in Russian & East European Studies 
Brandeis University 
GREA, MS 024 
Waltham, MA  02454-9110 
781.736.3347 (Office) 


-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at listserv.cuny.edu] On Behalf Of Prof Steven P Hill
<snip>

To the extent that Mr Kundera would like at least a few people to be
interested enough to want to learn to read and study his (early) writings in
the original Czech, he should keep in mind that those interested folks
probably will be studying and/or teaching in departments and programs of
Slavic languages and literatures.  Such people might start with Russian (as
a language), and proceed to other Slavic languages, including Czech
 -- which would be made much more accessible by prior studies within the
same language family (Slavic).

Moreover, in time (if not already), new Katerina Clarks and new Sheila
Fitzpatricks may appear on the scene, who will launch serious studies of
various "satellite" literatures and cultures in the era of the Soviet bloc
(c. 1946-89).  If such new looks at eastern- and Soviet-oriented literatures
and cultures are undertaken, including various permutations of "socialist
realism," all around the Soviet bloc, such studies would probably include
also what was then Czechoslovakia -- and Mr Kundera's role in that
eastern- and Soviet-oriented literature.

Best wishes to all,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois.
__ __ __ __ ___ __ __ __

   

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