|
Title of the article: |
PHENOMENON OF MEMORY IN THE WORKS OF MILAN KUNDERA (BY THE EXAMPLE OF THE NOVELS “THE JOKE”, “THE BOOK OF LAUGHTER AND FORGETTING” AND COLLECTIONS OF ESSAYS “ENCOUNTER”, “THE CURTAIN”) |
|
Author(s): |
Oksana A. Zapeka, Lyudmila V. Phenomenova |
|
Information about the author/authors |
Oksana A. Zapeka — PhD in Philosophy, Head of the Department of Slavic Studies and Cultural Studies, Institute of Slavic Culture, A.N. Kosygin Russian State University (Technologies. Design. Art), Khibinsky Pass. 6, 129227 Moscow, Russia. |
|
Section |
Theory and history of culture |
|
Year |
2024 |
|
Volume |
Vol. 74 |
|
Pages |
pp. 35–47 |
|
Received |
April 15, 2024 |
|
Approved after reviewing |
June 1, 2024 |
|
Date of publication |
December 29, 2024 |
|
DOI: |
https://doi.org/10.37816/2073-9567-2024-74-35-47 |
|
Index UDK |
130.2 |
|
Index BBK |
71.07 |
|
Abstract |
The issues of individual and collective memory keep attracting the attention of the variety of humanities` researchers for the past decades. As argued Marice Halbwachs, collective memory represents a key condition of the very existing and surviving of the social medium. Differentiating of the memory on two types determines the division of the fields of study, focusing on a given individual or collective respectively. We believe it possible, by means of the non-fiction literature and essays, to trace how the past affects the individual in present and how the individual, through his actions and memories is able to inform the reception and representations of the past. Hayden White whose ideas are quite provocative, suggests to tell “historical past” (as a field of studies of the historians) and “practical past” (thriving in literature, poetry and drama) apart. The works of the Czech and French writer Milan Kundera allows to examine the artwork as a kind of learning ground for studying individual memory and its connections with identity, as well as for exploring collective memory, which rests upon the “practical past”, experienced as an integral part of one`s self. Kundera`s novels use to intertwine characters` private life events with the historical events, essential for the fates of individual persons and the ones of many peoples. Kundera`s works are full of insights into the issues of individual memory and its links with identity, as well as of reflections on how the historical event are perceived and experienced, and later memorized by a person. For Kundera his country`s historical perception is indissociable from individual and collective memory, which is why he sees the very work of the historian as a preservation of this collective memory: to study how the past is perceived, is as indispensable as to study specific facts and evidences. |
|
Keywords |
Collective Memory, Halbwachs, Individual Memory, Kundera, White, Novel, Assmann, Essays, Identity, Personality, Cultural Values, “Practical Past”, “The Joke”, “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting”, “The Curtain”, “Encounter”. |
|
Reference |
Trufanova (ex. ed.), E.O., Emel'ianova, N.N., Iakovleva, A.F., editors Individual'naia i kollektivnaia pamiat' v tsifrovuiu epokhu. Kollektivnaia monografiia [Individual and Collective Memory in the Digital Era]. Moscow, Akvilon Publ., 2022. 400 p. (In Russ.) Mel'nikov, G.P. “Sakral'nyi motiv v romane Milana Kundery ‘Shutka’” [“Sacral motif in the novel ‘The Joke’ by Milan Kundera]. Oppozitsiia sakral'noe / svetskoe v slavianskoi literature [Opposition Sacral / Secular in Slavic literature]. Moscow, Institute of Slavic Studies of the RAS Publ., 2004. 240 p. (In Russ.) Riker, P. Ia-sam kak drugoi: Perevod s frantsuzskogo [Oneself as Another]. Moscow, Izdatel'stvo gumanitarnoi literatury Publ., 2008. 419 p. (In Russ.) Uait, Kh. Prakticheskoe proshloe [ Practical Past], trans. from English K. Mitroshenkova, A. Aramiana, introd. by A. Oleinikova. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2024. 192 p. (In Russ.) Sherlaimova, S.A. Milan Kundera i ego romannaia filosofiia [Milan Kundera and his Novelistic Philosophy]. Moscow, Indrik Publ., 2014. 268 p. (In Russ.) Assmann, Aleida. “Transformation between History and Memory.” Social Research, vol. 75, no. 1, 2008, pp. 49–72. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40972052 (Accessed 20 December 2024). (In English) Oakeshott, Michael. On History and Other Essays. Oxford, Blackwell Publ., 1983. 198 p. (In English) |
|
PDF-file |
