Kundera and Modernity

Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-1-55753-637-2
Verlag: Purdue University Press

Buch, Englisch, 259 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 226 mm, Gewicht: 386 g

While a large amount of scholarship about Milan Kundera's work exists, in Liisa Steinby's opinion, his work has not been studied within the context of (European) modernity as a sociohistorical and a cultural concept. Of course, he is considered to be a modernist writer (some call him even a postmodernist), but what the broader concept of modernity intellectually, historically, socially, and culturally means for him and how this is expressed in his texts has not been thoroughly examined. <br><br>Steinby's book fills this vacuum by analysing Kundera's novels from the viewpoint of his understanding of the existential problems in the culture of modernity. In addition, his relation to those modernist novelists from the first half of the twentieth century who are most important for him is scrutinised in detail. Steinby’s <em>Kundera and Modernity</em> is intended for students of modernism in literary and (comparative) cultural studies, as well as those interested in European and Central European studies.<br><br> Key Points:<ul><li> Offers new insights into the work of the popular modern writer Milan Kundera.</li><li> Expands the reader’s understanding of the meaning of the concept of “modernity.”</li></ul> Widens the literature available in English about Central European culture.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Steinby, Liisa

Über Autor(innen)

<strong>Liisa Steinby</strong> (until 2007 Liisa Saariluoma) teaches comparative literature at the University of Turku, Finland. Her interests in research include aspects of modernity in the novel from the eighteenth century to the present.