Milan Kundera
1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023
Milan Kundera was a Czech-born novelist who lived in France from 1975 and wrote his later works in French. His novels, including The Joke and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, examine private life under political pressure in twentieth-century Central Europe. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979; Czech citizenship was restored to him in 2019.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Milan Kundera.
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Life events
Milan Kundera was born in Brno, the son of the musicologist and pianist Ludvík Kundera.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe began studying literature and aesthetics at Charles University before transferring to FAMU, where he later taught world literature.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgKundera had joined the party in 1948 and was expelled in 1950; he was readmitted in 1956.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe novel, set in the Stalinist era, established his reputation in Czechoslovakia and abroad.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHis second marriage, to Věra Hrabánková, lasted until his death.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAfter the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion his books were removed from libraries and he lost his teaching post.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgKundera and his wife left Czechoslovakia for France, where he taught at the University of Rennes and later settled in Paris.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe Czechoslovak government revoked his citizenship in 1979, and he was granted French citizenship two years later.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe novel became his best-known work and was adapted into a film in 1988.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgKundera died in Paris at the age of 94 after a prolonged illness.
Source: en.wikipedia.org