Milan Kundera

Franco-Czechoslovak poet and novelist (1929 - 2023) · France · Writers · Died at 94

Milan Kundera is read about 1,556 times a day, in 86 languages.

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The Czech-French novelist who gave the world The Unbearable Lightness of Being - a book banned in his own country until 1989, written from exile in France after the Communist Party decided his work was too dangerous to let circulate.

Writers Writer / Author Literature Screenwriting Fiction Poetry France Europe

A life in dates

2023Died11 July 20232021Golden Order of MeritAward2020Franz Kafka PrizeAward2009Honorary Citizen of BrnoAwardPrix mondial Cino Del DucaAward2004City of Brno AwardAward2000“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent.”In their wordsAs quoted in Doug Gelbert, The Canine Hiker's Bible (2000), p. 8Read the whole statement

Herder PrizeAward1994Jaroslav Seifert PrizeAward1993“Today” PrizeAward1990Knight of the Legion of HonourAward1987Nelly Sachs PrizeAward1985Jerusalem PrizeAward1984“A novel that does not uncover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral. Knowledge is the novel's only morality.”In their words19 July 1984New York Review of Books, 19 July 1984Read the whole statement

1983Honorary Doctor of the University of MichiganAward1979“People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It's not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone.”In their wordsPt. I, ch. 17 (p. 22)Read the whole statement

1978Mondello PrizeAward1971“It is 1971, and Mirek says: The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”In their wordsPt. I, ch. 2 (p. 2)Read the whole statement

1967“Mysticism and exaggeration go together. A mystic must not fear ridicule if he is to push all the way to the limits of humility or the limits of delight.”In their wordsPt. 3, ch. 2Read the whole statement

“Nothing is more repugnant to me than brotherly feelings grounded in the common baseness people see in one another.”In their wordsPt. 3, ch. 9Read the whole statement

1964Klement Gottwald State PrizeAward1929Born1 April 1929

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Milan Kundera redux

Kundera - Můj Janáček

Kundera, Šala(1984)

Milan Kundera (cropped)

Milan Kundera (cropped1)

Milan Kundera L' insoutenable légèreté de l'être 1984 couverture

Milan Kundera L' insoutenable légèreté de l'être 1984 titre

Milan Kundera

In their own words 10

Milan Kundera

10 statements, newest first

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent.
2000, As quoted in Doug Gelbert, The Canine Hiker's Bible (2000), p. 8, Own words
Suspending moral judgment is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality.
1995, Testaments Betrayed (1995), p. 7, Own words
A novel that does not uncover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral. Knowledge is the novel's only morality.
Jul 19, 1984, New York Review of Books, 19 July 1984, Own words

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Awards

Golden Order of Merit, Borut Pahor2021

Franz Kafka Prize2020

Prix Nessim Habif2020

The prize of the BNF2012

Prix mondial Cino Del Duca2009

Honorary Citizen of Brno2009

Czech State Award for Literature2007

City of Brno Award2004

Premio Arcebispo Xoán de San Clemente de novela estranxeira2002

Herder Prize2000

Czech Medal of Merit, 1st class1995

Jaroslav Seifert Prize1994

“Today” Prize1993

Vilenica Prize1992

Knight of the Legion of Honour1990

Nelly Sachs Prize1987

Prix de la critique1987

Austrian State Prize for European Literature1987

Jerusalem Prize1985

Honorary Doctor of the University of Michigan1983

Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service1981

Mondello Prize1978

Prix Médicis étranger1973

Klement Gottwald State Prize1964

Family

Mother Milada Kunderová

Milan Kundera

Partners

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About this person

Milan Kundera was born in Czechoslovakia on 1 April 1929. In 1975, he went into exile in France, where he acquired citizenship in 1981; four years before that, in 1979, the Communist Party revoked his Czechoslovak citizenship. His books were banned at home until the Velvet Revolution in 1989 finally swept the regime away. He won the Jerusalem Prize in 1985, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1987, and the Herder Prize in 2000. In 2019, seventy years after he was born there, the Czech Republic restored his citizenship. He died in France on 11 July 2023, never having won the Nobel he was thought to be chasing, his profile kept low and his interviews rare to the end.

Country

France

In common with Milan

Stellan SkarsgårdAlso in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

Daniel Day-LewisAlso in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

Jaromil JirešAlso in The Joke (1969)

Jiřina JiráskováAlso in I, Mournful God (1969)

Boris BuzančićAlso in Nobody Will Laugh (1985)

Radovan VujovićAlso in To the Border (2013)

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