Parody of a Life which is Elsewhere

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Life Is Elsewhere is a reflective introspection into the life of a young poet and of his demanding mother. Kindera depicts the mother as a woman feeling unworthy of love who relishes the fantasy of being Jaromil's ethereal mother in order to escape from her actual bodily deprivation and resolve her psychological tensions. On the other hand, Jaromil's portrait as a young poet involves his consonant, in Lacan's terms, imaginary and symbolic identifications which lead him to an unending alienation in the context of a socialist system. Reading the novel in the light of Bakhtin's ideas on parody and its polyphonic nature illuminates Kundera's parodic treatment of motherhood, poetic, political and historical discourses, and especially his use of parody as a political means to oppose the domineering voice of totalitarianism. However, by giving parody an ontological status, Kundera considers it as the inevitable destiny of a human being who has forgotten his authentic "being" and ignored all his existential possibilities opened up to realization. Applying this notion to Kundera's relation to his characters, Jaromil and the middle-aged man, implies that these two characters are, in fact, the parody of the two stages of Kundera's own life and that of his generation's.

Lacanian Encounters in Milan Kundera’s Unbearable Lightness of Being.

“…This notion, as it is applied to Kundera's relation to his characters, Jaromil and the middle-aged man, implies that these two characters are, in fact, the parody of the two stages of Kundera's own life and that of his generation's. (Momeni, 2015) Written during the Prague Spring in 1968 and completed in 1970, Kundera in this novel frees himself from his communist past by challenging it indirectly through attacking youthful immaturity and narcissism. Kundera's other famous publications include Immortality (1990) -the first novel by Kundera in which no Czech character appears-Slowness (1995), Identity (1997), and Ignorance (2000), and of course his widely-read work The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984) (Frank, 2008).…”

Non-Identity and Parodoxicality in Angela Carter’s <i>The Bloody Chamber</i>

“…Milan Kundera, in his Life IS Elsewhere, depicts a woman (the mother) who feels the same conflict between her two identifications, yet he introduces Jaromil (the mother's son) as a mediator onto whose "seemingly integrated personality" the mother projects her psychological tension in order to resolve it. [8] However, Carter creates no such an external mediator and this leads to the protagonist's unrelenting introspection and interior dialogue with her existential states; the reason why her trouble with her identity aggravates more and more. The protagonist's interior dialogue which gives rise to the awareness of her given positions arises only through her self-questioning and her confronting at each stage of her enunciations the other stances opposed to them.…”