The Art of the Novel

by Milan Kundera, Linda Asher (Translator)

Kundera brilliantly examines the work of such important and diverse figures as Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne, Diderot, Flaubert, Tolstoy, and Musil. He is especially penetrating on Hermann Broch, and his exploration of the world of Kafka's novels vividly reveals the comic terror of Kafka's bureaucratized universe.

Kundera's discussion of his own work includes his views on the role of historical events in fiction, the meaning of action, and the creation of character in the post-psychological novel.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Essays, Literary Criticism, Literature, Czech Literature, Criticism

176 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 1986

About the author

People best know Czech-born writer Milan Kundera for his novels, including The Joke (1967), The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979), and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), all of which exhibit his extreme though often comical skepticism.

Since 1975, he lived in exile in France and in 1981 as a naturalized citizen.

Kundera wrote in Czech and French. He revises the French translations of all his books; people therefore consider these original works as not translations.

The Communist government of Czechoslovakia censored and duly banned his books from his native country, the case until the downfall of this government in the velvet revolution of 1989.

Reviews

[فايز غازي Fayez Ghazi · Rating 4 out of 5]

- في هذا الكتاب نحن امام مهندس افكار يأخذ بيدنا ليرينا تقنيات الفن المعماري للأدب، كيف تشيّد الصروح الفكرية والأدبية والفلسفية، الأساسات، والإتجهات المختلفة (أوروبا بشكل خاص)، كما يعرج على اهم مواد البناء التي يستعملها شخصياً في بناء رواياته.

- الكتاب من افخم انواع النبيذ الفرنسي، فعناقيد افكاره ماخوذة من دوالي رابليس، سرفانتس، ستيرن، ديديروت، فلوبير، تولستوي، وهو يتغلغل بشكل خاص في هيرمان بروخ والعظيم كافكا.

- يعرض ميلان ايضاً، الكيفية التي يبني بها رواياته وهو يركز على المسارات والثيمة، او بمعنى اوضح على الأحداث والأفكار الفلسفية التي تشكل استطراداً جميلاً يغني الرواية ويعطيها بعداً فلسفياً او انسانياً، كما يتحدث عن تقنياته كإدراج عامل الصدفة في الفصول الأخيرة من الرواية لإنعاشها ورفدها بأفكار جديدة.

- شخصياً، انا انصح الأصدقاء بعدم قراءته قبل قراءة اربع او خمس روايات لميلان، لأننا (وهذا حصل معي) سنبدأ بلاوعي بتتبع التقنية التي حدثنا ميلان عنها ونسهو عن الجمالية في النصوص

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-بعض الجواهر اللامعة التي اوردها ميلان:

-ص 12" كل ما هو انساني، بذرة نهايته في ولادته (بتصرف)"

- ص13:" اكتشاف ما يمكن للرواية دون سواها اكتشافه، هو ذا ما يؤلف مبرر وجود الرواية. إن الرواية التي لا تكتشف جزءاً من الوجود ما يزال مجهولاً هي رواية لا اخلاقية. إن المعرفة هي اخلاقية الرواية الوحيدة (عن بروخ)" عسى ان يمر حكام رواية البوكر على هذا النص :)

- ص41:" إن السبب الوحيد لوجود الرواية هو ان تقول شيئاً لا يمكن ان تقوله سوى الرواية (عن بروخ)"

- ص42:" ((الإنسان) كائن قادر في اي ظرف على إرسال قريبه للموت"

-ص 48" لا تفحص الرواية الواقع بل الوجود. والوجود ليس ما جرى، بل هو حقل الإمكانيات الإنسانية، كل ما يمكن للإنسان ان يصيره، وكل ما هو قادر عليه"

- ص49" إن الروائي ليس مؤرخاً او نبياً: إنه مستكشف للوجود"

-ص106:" حيثما تواجه السلطة تحدياً تنتج آلياً لاهوتها الخاص بها، وحيثما تتصرف كإله تستثير نحوها مشاعر دينية، ويمكن آنئذٍ وصف العالم بمفردات لاهوتية"

[Valeriu Gherghel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kundera e un prozator foarte conștient de arta sa. E limpede că, în cazul lui, inspirația e exclusă. Eseurile din acest volum mi-au adus aminte de Filosofia compoziției, textul în care Edgar Allan Poe arată că literatura e pe cale de a deveni o „ars combinatoria” perfect lucidă.

În proza lui Kundera, ai impresia (mai ales dacă ai citit cele 7 eseuri din cartea de față) că nimic nu provine din hazard și că totul a fost calculat minuțios. Majoritatea romanelor sale au 7 părți și, chiar dacă autorul declară că nu are mistica numărului 7 (pp.108-109), acest fapt dovedește încă o dată că autorul a fost foarte atent la construcția edificiului narativ.

Milan Kundera e și un foarte bun analist. Arta romanului mi-a adus aminte de eseurile despre proză ale lui Viktor Șklovski (pe care îl și citează la pagina 95). Găsim în această lucrare analize de o mare finețe și originalitate, care ne ajută să privim altfel romane ca Procesul lui Kafka și Somnambulii lui Hermann Broch. Kundera ține să ne facă atenți că rădăcinile literaturii sale se găsesc în romanul central-european (Kafka, Musil, Broch). I-aș adăuga cu de la sine putere pe ruși (Tolstoi, îndeosebi)

În cărțile lui, Kundera subminează statutul naratorului. Teoreticienii prozei ne cer imperios să nu confundăm naratorul cu autorul romanului. Prozatorul ceh pretinde că multe opinii (despre viață, erotism, kitsch, personaje) îi aparțin la propriu Autorului (p.102). În acest chip, Kundera tulbură apele în vechea problemă a „punctului de vedere”: „Îmi place să intervin din cînd în cînd direct, ca autor, ca eu însumi. În acest caz, totul depinde de ton. De la primul cuvînt, reflecția mea are un ton ludic, ironic, provocator, experimental sau interogativ” (p.102).

Aș aminti în încheiere două observații la care, măcar în parte, subscriu.
1. Omul fără însușiri al lui Robert Musil e un roman „mult prea lung și, pe alocuri, inform” (p.92).
2. O mie nouă sute optzeci și patru de George Orwell reprezintă, mai degrabă, un „roman de popularizare” (p.49): „Ceea ce ne spune Orwell ar fi putut fi spus la fel de bine (sau de fapt mult mai bine) într-un eseu sau într-un pamflet” (p.21).

Aș menționa, în concluzie, că Milan Kundera pare a fi cel mai bun comentator al cărților sale...

P. S. În Civilizația spectacolului, Mario Vargas Llosa constată dispariția de pe scena literaturii a criticului literar. Profesorii se mulțumesc să analizeze o operă și nu sînt deloc interesați de valoarea ei. Milan Kundera arată consecințele deplorabile ale acestui trend: „Structuralismul anilor șaizeci a pus problema valorii între paranteze. Și totuși fondatorul esteticii structuraliste spune: «Doar supoziția valorii estetice obiective dă un sens evoluției istorice a artei (Jan Mukarovsky, Funcția, norma și valoarea estetică ca fapte sociale, Praga, 1934.)». A-ți pune întrebări despre valoarea estetică înseamnă: a încerca să distingi și să denumești descoperirile, inovațiile, noua lumină pe care o operă o aruncă asupra lumii omenești. Doar opera recunoscută ca valoare (opera a cărei noutate a fost surprinsă și definită) poate deveni o parte a «evoluției istorice a artei», care nu reprezintă o simplă înșiruire de fapte, ci o urmărire a valorilor. Dacă îndepărtăm problema valorii, mulțumindu-ne cu descrierea (tematică, sociologică, formalistă) a unei opere (a unei perioade istorice, a unei culturi etc.), dacă punem semnul egalității între toate culturile și toate activitățile culturale (Bach și rock-ul, benzile desenate și Proust), dacă critica de artă (meditație asupra valorii) nu mai găsește loc pentru a se exprima, «evoluția istorică a artei» își va încețoșa sensul se va prăbuși, va deveni un depozit uriaș și absurd al operelor”.

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

NOVEL. The great prose form in which an author thoroughly explores, by means of experimental selves (characters), some great themes of existence.

LETTERS. They are getting smaller and smaller in books these days. I imagine the death of literature; bit by bit, without anyone noticing, the type shrinks until it becomes utterly invisible.

The above two quotes convey the richness and creamy depth along with the playfulness a reader will encounter in this book by one of the giants of modern literature, Czech-born Milan Kundera. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t imagine a collection of essays containing more gems of wisdom on each and every page. And since Mr. Kundera consistently composes his works in a seven part structure to accord with his own artistic, literary and musical sensibilities, I think it only fair that I list seven quotes, one from each of his seven parts, and make my modest comments accordingly.

Part One – The Depreciated Legacy of Cervantes
“To take, with Cervantes, the world as ambiguity, to be obliged to face not a single absolute truth but a welter of contradictory truths (truths embodied in imaginary selves called characters), to have as one’s only certainty the wisdom of uncertainty, requires no less courage.” ---------- I recall a lecturer on The Platonic Tradition accusing non-Platonists of being nihilistic skeptics and relativists for denying there is a truth as well as thinking how even if there was a truth it couldn’t be known, and even if it could be known, it couldn’t be communicated. Contrary to this accusation, Mr. Kundera outlines with flair and in some detail how the wisdom of the novel transcends the overly simplified binary categories of good/evil, either/or, black/white in dogmatic discourse.

Part Two – Dialogue on the Art of the Novel
“I’m too fearful of the professors for whom art is only a derivative of philosophical and theoretical trends. The novel dealt with the unconscious before Freud, the class struggle before Marx, it practiced phenomenology (the investigation of the essence of human situations) before the phenomenologists.” ---------- Mr. Kundera underscores how his novels and the great novels of other writers are not philosophy per se; rather, any ideas or philosophy arises from the specific existential situation of characters.

Part Three – Notes Inspired by “The Sleepwalkers"
“The world is the process of disintegration of values (values handed down from the Middle Ages), a process that stretches over the four centuries of the Modern Era and is their very essence.” ---------- This is a most intriguing section where the author analyzes the historical and cultural context of the various possibilities of freedom we face and how novelist Hermann Broch outlines three such possibilities in his great work.

Part Four – Dialogue on the Art of Composition
“Let me return to the comparison between the novel and music. A part is a movement. The chapters are measures. These measures may be short or long or quite variable in length. Which brings me to the issue of tempo. Each of the parts in my novels could carry a musical indication: moderato, presto, adagio, and so on.” ---------- We are told how the author was drawn more to music than to literature up to the age of twenty-five. Much of this section delves into some detail in comparing the structure of music with the structures of his novels, enough philosophic material here to keep both musicians and non-musicians ruminating for quite some time.

Part Five – Somewhere Behind
“There are periods of modern history when life resembles the novels of Kafka.” ---------- The author relates some of his own experience and stories living in Prague under a totalitarian regime. One story is about a mother of a one-year old baby boy who was unjustly imprisoned by the government. Years go by and the mother is released from prison. Then, some years after her release, the author visits the mother in her apartment. He watches as the mother dissolves in tears, waling and heaving, upset at her now twenty-five-year-old son over some minor matter like oversleeping. The author watches all this in shock; he see how the mother has taken the place of the totalitarian state and the son, like many of Kafka’s characters, accepts his guilt.

Part Six – Sixty-three Words
“IDEAS. My disgust for those who reduce a work to its ideas. My revulsion at being dragged into what they call “discussions of ideas.” My despair at this era befogged with ideas and indifferent to works.” ---------- At another point in the section, he says how novelists who think they are larger than their novels should get another job. Love his frankness!

Part Seven – Jerusalem Address: The Novel and Europe
“No peace is possible between the novelist and the agelaste. Never having heard God’s laughter, the agelasts are convinced the truth is obvious, that all men necessarily think the same thing, and that they themselves are exactly what they think they are.” ---------- The agelaste is a man or woman who does not laugh, who has no sense of humor. You know the type – and they hate literary novels like the ones written by Milan Kundera.

[Georgia Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea when I had a massage in Brno that it was Kundera's birthplace. I only knew that I was confused. The masseuse offered something I didn't get. I just shook my head. Only after I left did it occur to me the word she said was "sex." In her Czech accent it sounded more like "text."

I'm reminded of that massage while reading this book. The touch is light. Dancing almost. Kundera raises more thoughts than he expounds. The experience, though perplexing, is pleasing. What I don't understand doesn't detract from my enjoyment of The Art of the Novel.

I may not catch all the literary references or musical explanations of Kundera's craft. But the way he puts his finger on some topics is tops. That's why I keep going back to him. Kundera went back, too, just the other day. He sent 7000 of his books to Brno for a library in his name.

My favorite quote: "The novelist is neither historian nor prophet: he is an explorer of existence."

[Eli Za · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب در حقیقت مجموعه‌ای از مقالات و مصاحبه است که کوندرا در آن‌ها، از خلال برخی از مهمترین آثار نویسندگانی چون فوئنتس، بروخ، کافکا، فلوبر و ... به بررسی پدیده‌هایی همچون رمان، تاریخ رمان، هدف رمان‌نویس و ... می‌پردازد. از دیدگاه کوندرا، هدف رمان، روشنی افکندن بر بخشی از هستی انسان است که کشف ناشده باقی مانده است.

در بررسی رمان کافکایی، کوندرا عنصر تراژی�� و عنصر کمیک را با هم مقایسه می‌کند و به این نتیجه می‌رسد که عنصر کمیک در رمان کافکایی، نه تنها برای تلطیف و قابل تحمل ساختن عنصر تراژیک به کار نمی‌رود، بلکه تراژدی را در نطفه خفه می‌کند. تراژدی در حقیقت دستاویزی است برای انسان‌ها تا سرنوشت خود را عظیم و شکوه‌مند جلوه دهند. اما عنصر کمیک، بی‌معنایی و پوچی همه چیز را به رخ می‌کشد و انسان را از آخرین امید خود، یعنی تراژدی، محروم می‌کند.

کلمه دیگری که در نوشته‌های کوندرا و رمان 《بارهستی》 زیاد به چشم می‌خورد، 《کیچ》 است. کیچ، کلمه‌‌ای است که بیشتر در هنر به کار می‌رود و کوندرا آن را بصورت 《فقدان کامل نجاست.》 تعریف می‌کند. در جای دیگری، کوندرا تلاش انسان برای زیبا جلوه کردن در آینه‌ای که زیبایی‌های دروغین را به نمایش می‌گذارد، کیچ می‌نامد. کوندرا کیچ را به نوعی با حیوانیت پیوند می‌زند. حیوانیت، به معنی بی‌‌خردی موجود در ایده‌های پذیرفته شده است. انسان کیچ‌منش از دیدگاه کوندرا، کسی است که به دنبال جلب نظر بیشترین تعداد انسان‌هاست و برای این‌کار باید به ایده‌های پذیرفته شده چنگ بزند. از سوی دیگر کوندرا معتقد است که 《در پس رفتاری که به گونه‌ای نمایشی غیرسازشکارانه است، سطحی‌ترین روحیه کیچ قرار دارد.》

کوندرا در چند بخش از سخنانش از پیشی گرفتن ایده‌ها بر آثار رمان‌ها ابراز نفرت و بیزاری می‌کند. تسلط ایده‌های پذیرفته شده گذشته، که فاقد خردورزی و نوآوری هستند و بصورت مداوم از طریق رسانه‌های گروهی تبلیغ می‌شوند و خلاقیت و فردیت را سرکوب می‌کنند. آنچه واضح است، این است که کوندرا یک نویسنده پست‌مدرن نیست. او به وجود حقیقت در جهان بیرونی انسان معترف است، اما معتقد است که هیچ‌کس نباید خود را مالک این حقیقت بداند. فرآیند جستجوی حقیقت، فرآیندی است که شاید هرگز به پایان نمی‌رسد. نقدی که در اینجا می‌توان به آرای کوندرا وارد کرد، این است که رمان نمی‌تواند جایگزینی برای فلسفه باشد. بدون وجود فلسفه‌ای که برداشت ما از رمان را به تصویر کلی مرتبط کند، رمان می‌تواند همان‌قدر فریبنده باشد که می‌تواند روشنگر باشد. به تعبیر بوردیو، فهم ما از جهان اجتماعی، متأثر از همین جهان اجتماعی است. اگر ما نتوانیم در سطحی بالاتر نسبت به سازوکار فهم خودمان آگاهی پیدا کنیم، همواره در بند ابژه شناخت خود باقی خواهیم ماند. برای دستیابی به چنین شکلی از آگاهی وجود ابزارهایی غیر از رمان، نظیر فلسفه و معرفت‌شناسی لازم است.

به طور کلی برای شناخت و درک بهتر آنچه کوندرا در رمان‌هایش به تصویر می‌کشد، و دیدگاهی که نسبت به رمان و نویسندگی دارد، کتاب بسیار خوبی است.

[Mohammad Hrabal · Rating 4 out of 5]

قبل ‌از مطالعه این کتاب پیشنهاد می‌کنم چند کتاب از کوندرا مانند «بار هستی»، «زندگی جای دیگر است»، «کتاب خنده و فراموشی» و «شوخی» و چندین کتاب از کافکا و «سه گانه خواب گردها» از هرمان بروخ را مطالعه کنید.
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هیچ اعتقاد، ایدئولوژی یا نگرشی خاص بر جهان رمان حاکم نیست: «ذات هنر رمان با باورهای ایدئولوژیک مغایر است.» صفحه ۲۹ کتاب
درک انسان‌ها کاری بس سخت‌تر و ارزشمندتر از داوری درباره آنان است. صفحه ۳۳ کتاب
آیا آن‌طور که خواسته‌اند باور کنیم، «تنهایی» بار سنگین، اضطراب و نفرین است، یا برعکس، گران‌بهاترین نعمتی است که اجتماع، با حضور مداوم خود، در حال نابود کردن آن است؟ صفحه ۵۳ کتاب
رمان همچون الگوی این جهان، که مبتنی بر نسبیت و دوگونگی پدیده‌های بشری است، با جهان توتالیتر ناسازگار است. صفحه ۵۴ کتاب
روح رمان، روح پیچیدگی است. هر رمان به خواننده می‌گوید: «چیزها پیچیده‌تر از آنند که تو فکر می‌کنی.» صفحه ۵۹ کتاب
شاعران شعر را ابداع نمی‌کنند
شعر جایی در آن پس و پشت‌هاست
از دیر زمان در آنجاست
شاعر کاری نمی‌کند مگر کشف آن!
یان اسکاسل. صفحه‌ی ۱۴۷ کتاب
درگذشته، کافکاشناسان بر سر این ‌که آیا کافکا امیدی به ما ارزانی می‌دارد یا نه، مجادله بسیار کرده‌اند. نه، امیدی در کار نیست. مطلب دیگر آنکه، کافکا، حتی این وضع و موقعیتی را که زندگی در آن تحمل‌ناپذیر است، همچون زیبایی غریب و غم‌انگیزی کشف می‌کند. زیبایی، آخرین پیروزی ممکن انسانی است که دیگر امیدی ندارد. زیبایی در هنر، نوری است که به ناگاه از آنچه هرگز گفته نشده‌ است، می‌تابد. صفحه ۱۷۱ کتاب
نخستین عنوانی که برای رمان «بار هستی» در نظر گرفته شد، «سیاره‌ی بی‌تجربگی» بود. بی‌تجربگی همچون خصوصیت وضع و موقع بشری. ما تنها یک ‌بار متولد می‌شویم و هرگز نخواهیم توانست زندگی دیگری را با تجربه‌های زندگی پیشین، شروع کنیم. از کودکی بیرون می‌آییم، بی آنکه بدانیم جوانی چیست، ازدواج می‌کنیم، بی آنکه بدانیم متأهل بودن چیست، و حتی زمانی ‌که قدم به دوره‌ی پیری می‌گذاریم، نمی‌دانیم به کجا می‌رویم: سالخوردگان، کودکان معصوم کهن‌سالی خویش‌اند. از این‌ جهت، سرزمین انسان سیاره‌ی بی‌تجربگی است. صفحه ۱۸۰ کتاب
اما چرا خداوند از دیدن انسانی که می‌اندیشد، به خنده در می‌آید؟ زیرا انسان می‌اندیشد و به‌ حقیقت پی نمی‌برد. زیرا هر چه انسان‌ها بیشتر می‌اندیشند، اندیشه این یک از اندیشه‌ی آن دیگری دورتر می‌شود. و سرانجام، زیرا انسان هرگز آن‌ چیزی نیست که می‌اندیشد، هست. صفحه ۲۰۶ کتاب

[Paul Bryant]

I just came across a website called Theregoesanother25minutesyou’llnevergetback.com and it has a whole new attitude to literary criticism which I for one think is long overdue. They have the following eye-catching picture sections:

Can you recognize these overweight authors?

Wait till you see what these Shakespearian heroines look like now – Number 17 is jawdropping

15 transgender characters from Dostoyevsky no one knew about

You’ll never recognize these formerly hot Henry James male protagonists

15 characters in the novels of the Brontes who died before the age of 11

What Cathy Earnshaw looks like now is insane

Rare childhood photos of the Sherlock Holmes family that will make your flesh crawl

Groundbreaking laser eye surgery which is sweeping English literature

Your favourite characters from Beowulf – where are they now?

If only my undergraduate studies had been enlivened by such fascinating material. Kids these days, they don’t know they’re born.

[Katia N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second read; still impressive -reminded me about the power of “received ideas” in all spheres of life. Once more, it was fascinating how much phenomenology and music played role in his writing.

This time his observations about Russia as a colonial
power and the inability of its culture sofar to
Process this fact stood out for me much more due to
the obvious reasons:

“Soviet. An adjective I do not use. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: "Four words, four lies" (Cornelius
Castoriadis). The Soviet people: a verbal screen behind which all the Russified nations of that Empire are meant to be forgotten. The term "Soviet" suits not only the aggressive nationalism of Communist Greater Russia but also the national nostalgia of the dissidents. It allows them to believe that through a feat of magic, Russia (the real Russia) has been removed from the so-called Soviet State and somehow survives as an intact, immaculate essence, free of all blame. The German conscience: traumatized, incriminated by the Nazi era; Thomas Mann: pitiless arraignment of the Germanic spirit. The ripest moment of Polish culture: Gombrowicz joyously excoriating "Polish-ness." Unthinkable for the Russians to excoriate "Rus-sianness," that immaculate essence. Not a Mann, not a Gombrowicz among them.”

[P.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays, interviews and speeches, with 69 definitions and notes tagging along.

"alas, the novel too is assailed by the termites of depreciation that not only depreciate the meaning of the world but also the meaning of art works. The novel (like any cultural item) is increasingly in the hands of the media ; those, being the agents of uniformization of world history, strenghten and go along with the process of depreciation ; they spread the same oversimplifications and hackneyed ideas likely to be accepted by the greatest many, by all people. And it is of little import whether various political leanings appear in their various organs. Behind this makebelief difference the same rules apply. You only have to leaf through American or European weekly political papers, both from left wing and right wing. They all share the same worldview, mirrored by their common layout, their common topics, their common writing style, their common vocabulary, their common artistic tastes, their common hierarchy as to what is important and what is not. This common spirit of mass media in the guise of political diversity is the spirit of our times. To me, this spirit seems contrary to that of the novel.

The spirit of the novel is the spirit of complexity. Each novel tells to its readers : "Things are more complex than you suppose." This is the evergreen truth of the novel, each time less perceptible in the racket of quick, simple-minded answers bypassing the question and excluding it.

According to the spirit of our times, this is either Anna or Karenina who is right, and the old wiseness of Cervantes telling us about how hard it is to know looks cumbersome and useless."

-----------------

Une compilation d'essais, d'entretiens et discours, de 69 définitions et de notes.


" hélas, le roman est, lui aussi, travaillé par les termites de la réduction qui ne réduisent pas seulement le sens du monde mais aussi le sens des œuvres. Le roman (comme toute la culture) se trouve de plus en plus dans les mains des médias ; ceux-ci, étant agents de l'unification de l'histoire planétaire, amplifient et canalisent le processus de réduction ; ils distribuent dans le monde entier les mêmes simplifications et clichés susceptibles d'être acceptés par le plus grand nombre, par tous, par l'humanité entière. Et il importe peu que dans leurs différents organes les différents intérêts politiques se manifestent. Derrière cette différence de surface règne un esprit commun. Il suffit de feuilleter les hebdomadaires politiques américains ou européens, ceux de la gauche comme de la droite, du Time au Spiegel ; ils possèdent tous la même vision de la vie qui se reflète dans le même ordre selon lequel leur sommaire est composé, dans les mêmes rubriques, les mêmes formes journalistiques, dans le même vocabulaire et le même style, dans les mêmes goûts artistiques et dans la même hiérarchie de ce qu'ils trouvent importants et de ce qu'ils trouvent insignifiants. Cet esprit commun des mass media dissimulé derrière leur diversité politique, c'est l'esprit de notre temps. Cet esprit me semble contraire à celui du roman.
L'esprit du roman est l'esprit de complexité. Chaque roman dit au lecteur : « Les choses sont plus compliquées que tu ne le penses. » C'est la vérité éternelle du roman mais qui se fait de moins en moins entendre dans le vacarme des réponses simples et rapides qui précèdent la question et l'excluent. Pour l'esprit de notre temps, c'est ou bien Anna ou bien Karénine qui a raison, et la vieille sagesse de Cervantes qui nous parle de la difficulté de savoir et de l'insaisissable vérité paraît encombrante et inutile. "

- L'art du roman (1986), Editions Gallimard, Folio pp. 29-30.

[Ahmad Sharabiani · Rating 4 out of 5]

L'art du roman = The Art of the Novel, Milan Kundera
Kundera brilliantly examines the work of such important and diverse figures as: Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne, Diderot, Flaubert, Tolstoy, and Musil. He is especially penetrating on Hermann Broch, and his exploration of the world of Kafka's novels vividly reveals the comic terror of Kafka's bureaucratized universe. Kundera's discussion of his own work includes his views on the role of historical events in fiction, the meaning of action, and the creation of character in the post-psychological novel.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: هشتم ماه سپتامبر سال 1992 میلادی
عنوان: هنر رمان؛ نویسنده: میلان کوندرا؛ مترجم: پرویز همایون پور؛ تهران، گفتار، 1367؛ در در بیست و سه و 246 ص؛ مصور؛ کتابنامه بصورت زیر نویس؛ ویرایش دوم 1368؛ در سی و پنج و 286 ص؛ چاپ چهارم 1377؛ شابک: 9645570441؛ چاپ پنجم 1380؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، قطره، 1383؛ در 288 ص؛ چاپ هفتم 1386؛ شابک: 9788643412180؛ چاپ نهم 1391؛ چاپ دهم 1393؛ موضوع: داستان نویسی ، قرن 20 م
دو مقدمه هست از مترجم، و یک مقدمه از نویسنده، سپس بجای چهار فصل سال به تعداد روزهای هفته هفت فصل دارد: 1) «میراث بیقدر شده ی سروانتس». 2) «گفتگو در باره هنر رمان». 3) «یادداشتهایی ملهم از خوابگردها»، 4) گفتگو در باره هنر ترکیب رمان». 5) «جایی در آن پس و پشت ها». 6) «هفتادودو کلمه». 7) رمان اروپا. ا. شربیانی

[Ahmed Ibrahim · Rating 4 out of 5]

"إن حكمة الرواية مختلفة عن حكمة الفلسفة. فالرواية لم تنشأ من العقل النظري، بل من روح الفكاهة. أحد إخفاقات أوروبا هو أنّها لم تستوعب أبدًا الفن الأكثر أوروبيّة، أي لم تستوعب الرواية ولا روح الرواية ولا معارفها الشاسعة ولا اكتشافها ولا الاستقلال الذاتيّ لتاريخها. ليس الفن المستوحى من ضحكِ الإله خاضعًا، في جوهره، لليقينيّات الأيديولوجية، بل هو مناقض لها. إن الرواية، على غرار بنيلوب، تفكُّ ليلا النسيج الذي حاكه الثيولوجيّون و الفلاسفة والعلماء"

حديث كونديرا عن الرواية لا يقل جمالا عن رواياته لأنه يضيء أفكاره بأمثلة عديدة من بعض الكتاب ومن كتبه.
فصل التأليف الموسيقي عظيم، من أجمل ما يمكن أن تقرأ، يمتزج فيه حب الرواية بالموسيقى واختلاط البنية المعمارية للاثنين، كونديرا موسيقي بقدر ما هو روائي.
كتاب جميل.

[W.D. Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/22 Note: I have written an extended meditation (in the form of a "midrash", or gloss) on this book at http://longform.wdclarke.org/kundera-...

This book has profoundly affected the way I view the history (and future) of the novel. From Barthes' "Death of the Author" through Barth's "Literature of Exhaustion" (and beyond--to the comparatively Lilliputian debate between Ben Marcus and Jonathan Franzen, the repetition-as-farce of the Lukacs/Brecht debates of the e20C, as entertaining as they were), nothing else has given me such a clear and, yes, Olympian vista.

[Emily Rapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kundera is able to talk about the structure of his novel in a way that is both profound and accessible to writers of any ilk. I especially like his attitudes (negative!) toward the mass-production of "market books" which he compares to another form of celebrity culture encroaching on the literary world. His comparisons of novelistic "movements" to those in music are especially profound. The best thing about this book: Kundera's idea that novels are in fact an inquiry into a facet of human existence at a deep and profound level. The novel DISCOVERS something new, probing both the psychology of "imaginary selves" (Characters) and how their actions speak to larger issues of our time. Some great analysis of Kafka. If you want to understand why you hate chic lit, read this book.

[Mohammed · Rating 3 out of 5]

خذ الأدب من أفواه الأدباء. بين أيدينا كتاب فاخر تتحدث فيه إحدى أيقونات الرواية العالمية عن الرواية. يناقش الأديب فيه جوانباً متعددة عن فن الرواية وعن عناصرها وتاريخها. بالإضافة إلى تحليل بعض الأعمال الأدبية الخالدة.

قد يكون العنوان مظللاً، إذا ربما أعطى انطباعاً عن كونه دليلاً للتفنن في كتابة الرواية. لكن الحال هو أن الكتاب مكون من مقالات متنوعة تتحدث عن الرواية من جوانب مختلفة. أعتقد أنك تعرف مسبقاً بأن هذا النوع من الكتب "المجمعة" لا بد أن يحتوي على فصول تثير حماستك وأخرى تطرح مواضيعاً لا تكترث لها كثيراً. على الأقل هذا رأيي.

أكثر الفصول فائدةً وإمتاعاً بالنسبة لي هي تلك التي تحدث فيها عن إرث سيرفانتس، وعن أوروبا والرواية، وعن رمزيات كافكا وقيمة أعماله. ثمة فصل يشرح فيه مفردات تختص بها رواياته مثل الكيتش، الخفة وانعدام التجربة ...إلخ، لم يكن بمستوى الفصول الأخرى. لم أتوقع أن انسجم مع تحليله لثلاثية "المسرنمون" حيث أنني لم أقرأ ذلك العمل، ومع ذلك فقد كان تشريحه للنص غاية في الاحترافية.

كتاب خفيف الظل يستحق القراءة.

[امتياز · Rating 1 out of 5]

لقد اخترت هذا الكتاب لقراءته بناءً على اسم الكتاب وليس اسم مؤلفه ظنًا أنه يتحدث عن فن كتابة الروايات في محاولة مني لسبر أسرار هذا العالم ، وقلت في نفسي بأنه ربما يكون أيضًا تجربة جيدة للبدء في القراءة لكونديرا ، لكني فوجئت بالكاتب يتحدث عن بعض الشخصيات التي وردت في الروايات الأوروبية الشهيرة بالإضافة إلى شخصيات أبطاله في رواياته التي لم اقرأها بعد ، وهذا الشيء أزعجني وبشدة لأني لم أكن اعرف عما أو عمن يتحدث بالضبط.

فهذا الكتاب عبارة عن مجموعة من النصوص التي وضعها كونديرا حول تأملاته وآرائه المختلفة في الرواية الأوروبية وروايات كافكا وبعض الكلمات الجوهرية التي وردت في رواياته المختلفة.

الكتاب كان بالنسبة لي ضبابيًا ، لذلك شعرت بالحيرة والتشتت والضيق، ورغم ذلك واصلت القراءة على مضض ، وقد أحسست بأنه قد تم خداعي بهذا العنوان البعيد عن المضمون أو المحتوى.

لو قرأت هذا الكتاب بعد قراءتي لروايات كونديرا لكان اختلف الأمر وما كان بهذا السوء كما رأيته للأسف.

على أية حال ، لقد استمر الاحساس بالخديعة في صحبتي حتى أنهيت الكتاب بكثير من الضجر والملل وتقليب الصفحات سريعًا.

لكن كلمة حق تُقال ، اعتقد بأن العيب ربما ليس في كونديرا أو كتابه بل هو في قدرتي الضعيفة على استيعاب ما ورد فيه.

[Gabril · Rating 5 out of 5]

In sette testi tra loro interconnessi si svolge uno dei più affascinanti saggi sull’essenza e il senso del romanzo.

Qui una raccolta di perle:

Ebbene, io non mi stancherò mai di ripetere: la sola ragione d’essere del romanzo sta nel dire quello che solo il romanzo può dire. […] scoprire quello che solo un romanzo può scoprire.

Intendere, come fa Cervantes, il mondo come ambiguità, dover affrontare, invece che una sola verità assoluta, una quantità di verità relative che si contraddicono (verità incarnata in una serie di io immaginari chiamati personaggi), possedere dunque come sola certezza la saggezza dell’incertezza...

La verità totalitaria esclude la relatività, il dubbio, l’interrogativo, ed è quindi inconciliabile con quello che io chiamerei lo spirito del romanzo.

Lo spirito del romanzo è lo spirito di complessità. Ogni romanzo dice al lettore: “le cose sono più complicate di quanto tu pensi”. È questa l’eterna verità del romanzo, sempre meno udibile, però, nel frastuono delle risposte semplici e rapide che precedono la domanda e la escludono. Per lo spirito del nostro tempo, o ha ragione Anna o ha ragione Karenin, e la vecchia saggezza di Cervantes che ci parla della difficoltà di sapere e dell’inafferrabile verità, sembra ingombrante e inutile.

Ora, se la ragion d’essere del romanzo è di tenere il “mondo della vita” sotto una luce perpetua e di proteggerci contro “l’oblio dell’essere”, l’esistenza del romanzo non è oggi più necessaria che mai?

Tutti i romanzi di tutti i tempi indagano l’enigma dell’io. Dal momento in cui si crea un essere immaginario, un personaggio, ci si trova automaticamente di fronte alla domanda: che cos’è l’io? In che modo lo si può cogliere?

Il romanzo non indaga la realtà, ma l’esistenza. E l’esistenza non è ciò che è avvenuto, l’esistenza è il campo delle possibilità umane, di tutto quello che l’uomo può divenire, di tutto quello di cui è capace.

Il romanziere non è né uno storico né un profeta: è un esploratore dell’esistenza.

Al di fuori del romanzo, siamo nel campo delle affermazioni: ognuno è sicuro della sua parola-il politico, il filosofo, la portiera. Nel territorio del romanzo, non si fanno affermazioni: è il territorio del gioco e delle ipotesi. La meditazione romanzesca è quindi, per essenza, interrogativa, ipotetica.

[…] L’immaginazione, che, affrancata dal controllo della ragione e dall’assillo della verosimiglianza, penetra in paesaggi inaccessibili alla riflessione razionale.

Unire l’estrema gravità della domanda all’estrema leggerezza della forma: questa è da sempre la mia ambizione.

Dice un bellissimo proverbio ebraico: L’uomo pensa, Dio ride. Prendendo spunto da questa massima, mi piace immaginare che François Rabelais abbia udito un giorno la risata di Dio e che sia nata così l’idea del primo grande romanzo europeo. Mi diverte pensare che l’arte del romanzo sia venuta al mondo come l’eco della risata di Dio.
Ma perché Dio ride guardando l’uomo che pensa? Perché l’uomo pensa e la verità gli sfugge. […] perché l’uomo non è mai ciò che pensa di essere.

Ma l’uomo diventa individuo proprio quando perde la certezza della verità e il consenso unanime degli altri. Il romanzo è il paradiso immaginario degli individui.

Ogni romanzo, che lo voglia o no, propone una risposta alla domanda: che cos’è l’esistenza umana e dove sta la sua poesia?

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book in the early 90s. Recently I was in a spirited conversation about Boccaccio's Decameron. One friend said that the stories were "enjoyable, but ultimately empty." Now my friend is a smart guy, but his remark struck me as remarkably stupid. It just proved that he didn't "get it." The Decameron is full of laughter – you can almost argue that it is constructed for laughter, and laughter in the history of the novel is a value of its own. Mocking wit, a refusal of piety and platitude, is intrinsic to the craft. And thus I remembered Kundera.

The chapters in The Art of the Novel advert to Kundera's heroes: Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne and Diderot. Speaking of Don Quixote, he observers

At the time, novels and readers had not yet signed the verisimilitude pact. They were not looking to simulate reality; they were looking to amuse, amaze, astonish, enchant. They were playful, and therein lay their virtuosity.

In the final chapter, speaking of Gargantua and Pantagruel, he insists

The novel is born not of the theoretical spirit but of the spirit of humor… The art inspired by God's laughter does not by nature serve ideological certitudes, it contradicts them. Like Penelope, it undoes each night the tapestry that the theologians, philosophers, and learned men have woven the day before.

I've been convinced of this perspective ever since I first read Slaughterhouse-Five as a teenager. Humor, however black, is (for me) the best, wisest, truest response of the artist to the horror of the world. Last year I reread Metamorphosis and was astonished by how wickedly funny it was. Kundera is excellent on Kafka, Broch and Gombrowicz, and eloquent in his conviction that "The sole raison d'être of a novel is to discover what only the novel can discover. A novel that does not discover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral."

[Sidharth Vardhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got like 7500+ words in quotes I collected only. Can't share full review because of limits imposed by goodreads. This gonna be too big a long review.

Chapter 1 The Depriciated Legacy of Cervantes

Milan Kundera draws a rough and brief sketch of history of novel. Kundera insists that the novels should do what only novels can do.

Can novels die? It has already happened

"About half a century ago the history of the novel came to a halt in the empire of Russian Communism. That is an event of huge importance, given the greatness of the Russian novel from Gogol to Bely. Thus the death of the novel is not just a fanciful idea. It has already happened. And we now know how the novel dies: it's not that it disappears; it falls away from its history. Its death occurs quietly, unnoticed, and no one is outraged."

But it is not because the novels are useless

"If the novel should really disappear, it will do so not because it has exhausted its powers but because it exists in a world grown alien to it."

The novels published in Soviet Russia are inconseqential:

"By discovering nothing, they fail to participate in the sequence of discoveries that for me constitutes the history of the novel; they place themselves outside that history, or, if you like: they are novels that come after the history of the novel."

Chapter 2 A Dialogue on the art of novel

Kundera here argues two adjectives - 'Psychological' and 'philosphical' can not be used for his novels. To be honest, as much as I understand his desire to avoid such labels - Nabhokov didn't like them either; Atwood doesn't like being feminist. I think most great authors won't have been fans of these labels. Such labels seem to arise of critics' analysing the books.

Kundera also debunks several misconceptions on the rules-of-thumb regarding how novels should be written - including psychological realism. Kundera appreciates it (it is defining quality of most of what I love in books) in that excessive importance given to it can be really limiting to what novels can do. He is more critical of 'so-called modern novels' of 21 st century and writing novels that are too historical.

"Historiography writes the history of society, not of man. That is why the historical events my novels talk about are often forgotten by historiography. Example: In the years that followed the 1968 Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, the reign of terror against the public was preceded by officially organized massacres of dogs. An episode totally forgotten and without importance for a historian, for a political scientist, but of the utmost anthropological significance! By this one episode alone I suggested the historical climate of The Farewell Party."

Part 3 Notes Inspired by "The Sleepwalkers"

Gonna have to read that book. Most underrated of all great novels of last century according to Kundera.

"All great works (precisely because they are great) contain something unachieved. Broch is an inspiration to us not only because of what he brought off but also because of what he aimed for and missed."

"The unachieved in his work can show us the need for (1) a new art of radical divestment (which can encompass the complexity of existence in the modern world without losing architectonic clarity); (2) a new art of novelistic counterpoint (which can blend philosophy narrative, and dream into one music); (3) a new art of the specifically novelistic essay (which does not claim to bear an apodictic message but remains hypothetical, playful, or ironic)"

Part 4 The Art of Composition

Another interview. First of all, the novel is like music which should have

"Harsh juxtapositions instead of transitions, repetition instead of variation, and always head straight for the heart of things: only the note that says something essential has the right to exist. Roughly the same idea applies to the novel: it too is weighed down by "technique," by the conventions that do the author's work for him: present a character, describe a milieu, bring the action into a historical situation, fill time in the characters' lives with superfluous episodes; each shift of scene calls for new exposition, description, explanation. My own imperative is "Janacekian": to rid the novel of the automatism of novelistic technique, of novelistic verbalism; to make it dense."

If you have read his books, you probably have noticed that his writings do try to cut to the main point. To make your work longer is so 19the century according to Kundera.

And then, here is something I hear a lot myself "Show, not tell". Kundera often speaks himself in his books, Rushdi does it too and I can understand why they should do so - the trouble is showing makes books bigger than they need be and

"Even if I'm the one speaking, my reflections are connected to a character. I want to think his attitudes, his way of seeing things, in his stead and more deeply than he could do it himself."

And last, Kundera would have considered 'Games of thrones' and most of netflix series a farce.

"C.S.: What does the word "farce" mean to you?

M.K.: A form that puts enormous stress on plot, with its whole machinery of unforeseen and exaggerated coincidences."

Part 5 Somewhere Else

"When Kafka read the first chapter of The Trial to his friends, everyone laughed, including the author"

Kundera discusses the meaning of word 'Kafesque'. This is best analysis I have found on Kafka even better than one provided by Camus in 'Myth of Sysphyus'. But then Kundera had the added advantage of having lived in Czech Republic which was highly Kafesque.

One quality of Kafesque is ability of powerful to make the punished feel guilty

"One day, Amalia receives an obscene letter from a Castle official. Outraged, she tears it up. The Castle doesn't even need to criticize Amalia's rash behavior. Fear (the same fear our engineer saw in his secretary's eyes) acts all by itself. With no order, no perceptible sign from the Castle, everyone avoids Amalia's family like the plague.

Amalia's father tries to defend his family. But there is a problem: Not only is the source of the verdict impossible to find, but the verdict itself does not exist! To appeal, to request a pardon, you have to be convicted first! The father begs the Castle to proclaim the crime. So it's not enough to say that the punishment seeks the offense. In this pseudotheological world, the punished beg for recognition of their guilt!."

And the humor:

"The comic is inseparable from the very essence of the Kafkan" .... "But it's small comfort to the engineer to know that his story is comic. He is trapped in the joke of his own life like a fish in a bowl; he doesn't find it funny. Indeed, a joke is a joke only if you're outside the bowl; by contrast, the Kafkan takes us inside, into the guts of a joke, into the horror of the comic."

Which worsens the tragedy:

"the tragic more bearable by lightening the tone; it doesn't accompany the tragic, not at all, it destroys it in the egg and thus deprives the victims of the only consolation they could hope for: the consolation to be found in the (real or supposed) grandeur of tragedy."

There is a loss of solitude and privacy:

"The Land-Surveyor K. is not in the least pursuing people and their warmth, he is not trying to become "a man among men" like Sartre's Orestes; he wants acceptance not from a community but from an institution. To have it, he must pay dearly: he must renounce his solitude. And this is his hell: he is never alone, the two assistants sent by the Castle follow him always. When he first makes love with Frieda, the two men are there, sitting on the cafe counter over the lovers, and from then on they are never absent from their bed. Not the curse of solitude but the violation of solitude is Kafka's obsession!"

USSR was heavily Kafesque in all these ways. But

"Kafka made no prophecies. All he did was see what was "behind." He did not know that his seeing was also a fore-seeing. He did not intend to unmask a social system. He shed light on the mechanisms he knew from private and microsocial human practice, not suspecting that later developments would put those mechanisms into action on the great stage of History."

Chapter 6 Sixty-three words

"I once left a publisher for the sole reason that he tried to change my semicolons to periods."

A dictionary Kundera created to help his translators.

"Obscenity. We can use obscene words in a foreign language, but they are not heard as such. An obscenity pronounced with an accent becomes comical. The difficulty of being obscene with a foreign woman. Obscenity: the root that attaches us most deeply to our homeland."

"Opus. The excellent custom of composers. They give opus numbers only to works they see as "valid." They do not number works written in their immature period, or occasional pieces, or technical exercises."


"Vulgarity: the humiliating submission of the soul to the rule of the down-below. The novel first undertook the immense theme of vulgarity in Joyce's Ulysses."

"Kitsch. Unknown in France, or known only in a very impoverished sense. In the French version of Hermann Broch's celebrated essay, the word "kitsch" is translated as "junk art" (art de pacotille). A misinterpretation, for Broch demonstrates that kitsch is something other than simply a work in poor taste. There is a kitsch attitude. Kitsch behavior. The kitsch-man's (Kitschmensch) need for kitsch: it is the need to gaze into the mirror of the beautifying lie and to be moved to tears of gratification at one's own reflection."

"Misomusist. To be without a feeling for art is no disaster. A person can live in peace without reading Proust or listening to Schubert. But the misomusist does not live in peace. He feels humiliated by the existence of something that is beyond him, and he hates it. There is a popular misomusy just as there is a popular anti-Semitism. The fascist and Communist regimes made use of it when they declared war on modern art. But there is an intellectual, sophisticated misomusy as well: it takes revenge on art by forcing it to a purpose beyond the aesthetic. The doctrine of engage art: art as an instrument of politics."


"The desire to be modern is an archetype, that is, an irrational imperative, anchored deeply within us, a persistent form whose content is changeable and indeterminate: what is modern is what declares itself modern and is accepted as such."

"Nonthought. This cannot be translated by "absence of thought." Absence of thought indicates a nonreality the disappearance of a reality. We cannot say that an absence is aggressive, or that it is spreading. "Nonthought," on the other hand, describes a reality, a force; I can therefore say "pervasive non-thought"; "the nonthought of received ideas"; "the mass media's nonthought"; etc.

"The moment Kafka attracts more attention than Joseph K., Kafka's posthumous death begins."

Chapter 7 Jerusalem Address: The Novel and Europe

"But what is that wisdom, what is the novel? There is a fine Jewish proverb: Man thinks, God laughs. Inspired by that adage, I like to imagine that Francois Rabelais heard God's laughter one day, and thus was born the idea of the first great European novel. It pleases me to think that the art of the novel came into the world as the echo of God's laughter."

What is opposite of a novelist? an agelaste:

"Francois Rabelais invented a number of neologisms that have since entered the French and other languages, but one of his words has been forgotten, and this is regrettable. It is the word agelaste; it comes from the Greek and it means a man who does not laugh, who has no sense of humor. Rabelais detested the agelastes. He feared them. He complained that the agelastes treated him so atrociously that he nearly stopped writing forever."

"No peace is possible between the novelist and the agelaste. Never having heard God's laughter, the agelastes are convinced that the truth is obvious, that all men necessarily think the same thing, and that they themselves are exactly what they think they are. But it is precisely in losing the certainty of truth and the unanimous agreement of others that man becomes an individual. The novel is the imaginary paradise of individuals. It is the territory where no one possesses the truth, neither Anna nor Karenin, but where everyone has the right to be understood, both Anna and Karenin."

and most of self-claimed philosphers I have come across are agelaste.

"The novel's wisdom is different from that of philosophy. The novel is born not of the theoretical spirit but of the spirit of humor. One of Europe's major failures is that it never understood the most European of the arts—the novel; neither its spirit, nor its great knowledge and discoveries, nor the autonomy of its history. The art inspired by God's laughter does not by nature serve ideological certitudes, it contradicts them. Like Penelope, it undoes each night the tapestry that the theologians, philosophers, and learned men have woven the day before."

Another problem a novelist fights is 'received ideas'. Flaubert used to collect such ideas:

"He put them into a celebrated Dictionnaire des idees regues. We can use this title to declare: Modern stupidity means not ignorance but the nonthought of received ideas. Flaubert's discovery is more important for the future of the world than the most startling ideas of Marx or Freud. For we could imagine the world without the class struggle or without psychoanalysis, but not without the irresistible flood of received ideas that—programmed into computers, j propagated by the mass media—threaten soon to become a force that will crush all original and individual thought and thus will smother the very essence of the European culture of the Modern Era."

Kind of reminds me of most Modi-Bhakts who would go repeating whatever the few right wings organisations tell them. And the last enemy of novelist is kitsch

"The word "kitsch" describes the attitude of those who want to please the greatest number, at any cost. To please, one must confirm what everyone wants to hear, put oneself at the service of received ideas. Kitsch is the translation of the stupidity of received ideas into the language of beauty and feeling. It moves us to tears of compassion for ourselves, for the banality of what we think and feel. Today, fifty years later, Broch's remark is becoming truer still. Given the imperative necessity to please and thereby to gain the attention of the greatest number, the aesthetic of the mass media is inevitably that of kitsch"

Which is kind of my problem with most YA books.

[Eman Alshareef · Rating 5 out of 5]

لست فقط سعيدة بقراءة هذا الكتاب وانما فخورة أيضا .. فخورة جداً

هل بقراءتي لهذا الكتاب امتلكت مقومات الفن الروائي ؟؟ بالطبع لا .. بالعكس، ان كان لدي طموح قديم بكتابة رواية أو اي انتاج ادبي فتخليت عن هذا الطموح بسعادة ..

لكي نكتب رواية يجب أن نؤمن بهدفها و وظيفتها .. وليس فقط مجرد تسجيل صوت واسم لنا في العالم الأدبي .. لأن وظيفة الرواية حسب ميلان كونديرا هي محاربة نسيان الكائن (جوهر الانسان) و اكتشاف ما يمكن للرواية وحدها دون سواها أن تكتشفه، هو ذا ما يؤلف مبرر وجود الرواية، إن الرواية التي لا تكتشف جزءاً من الوجود ما يزال مجهولاً هي رواية لا أخلاقية، إن المعرفة هي أخلاقية الرواية الوحيدة


في ضوء هذا التعريف والوظيفة المنطقيان بالنسبة لي على الاقل فإن الكثير من النتاج الادبي المتوفر هو عبارة عن روايات لا أخلاقية لأنها لا تقدم شيئا جديدا للوجود وانما تؤكد على ما تم اكتشافه ..

لا يخترع الشعراء القصائد
فالقصيدة موجودة في مكان ما، هناك
منذ زمن طويل جداً، هي هناك
ولا يفعل الشاعر شيئاً سوى أن يكشف عنها.


قبل قراءتي لهذا الكتاب كنت حريصة جدا على قراءة مجموعة من روايات الكاتب التي جذبني غموض وجمال اسلوبها .. في الكتاب تم الكشف عن جزء من طبيعة هذا الا��لوب لكنه ما زال غامضا وساحرا بالنسبة لي .. كما أكد لي انني ما زالت قارئة سطحية للنص الأدبي بالرغم من حرصي على امتصاص روح الاسلوب ..

الكتاب في مجمله عبارة عن مقالات وحوارات صحفية نشرت من قبل للكاتب وتم تجميعها في هذا الكتاب في سبعة فصول .. استمتعت جدا بقراءة الكتاب خصوصا في الاجزاء التي تتحدث عن كتب سبق وقرأتها ...


أتمنى من الذين يطلقون على انفسهم لقب "كاتب" التوقف عن هذا والتعلم من قامات الادب الروائي قبل التشدق بالهراء

[Nguyên Trang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nếu thế giới nợ gì ở Kundera thì không phải tiểu thuyết mà là các tiểu luận. Đọc tiểu thuyết Kundera vẫn luôn cảm thấy thiếu thiếu gì đó nhưng tiểu luận thì thống khoái vô cùng. Trong các tiểu luận thì thấy cuốn Nghệ thuật tiểu thuyết này khai mở nhất (có lẽ vì nhiều liên quan).
Với một người hơi hướng hiện sinh như tôi thì nghệ thuật tiểu thuyết theo ý tưởng của Kundera là rất đồng tình. Phải coi tiểu thuyết như một sự khai phá cả về hình thức và nội dung. Nhưng nói như vậy thì nghe lý thuyết suông sáo rỗng nhỉ. Nhưng qua cách diễn đạt của Kundera thì mới thấy mãn nhãn mãn nhĩ, rúng động tâm can.
Nhìn chung thì đó chính là Kitsch mà Kundera lấy làm nhân trong Đời nhẹ khôn kham. Kiểu văn chương mô phỏng lại xã hội đạo đức giả chuyên nói những điều đúng thì thật chán ngấy và sẽ tới hồi phải diệt vong đi thôi. Văn chương nó phải là phi lý, lệch lạc, vô đạo đức cũng được. Nó không phải là một khẳng định mà nên để ở nghi vấn. Đấy mới là con người hoho

[Ahmed Faiq · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...إن مؤسس الأزمنة الحديثة، بالنسبة الي، ليس ديكارت وحسب، بل ايضا سرفانتس........إذا كان صحيحا أن الفلسفة والعلوم قد نسيتا وجود الانسان، فالظاهر على نحو جليّ أن مع سرفانتس تشكل فن أوروبي كبير، وهذا الفن ليس سوى أكتشاف ذلك الوجود المنسي."

يقول كونديرا في مقدمة زلزالية ان الرواية هي طريق العودة من "نسيان الوجود" حسب تعبير هايدغر، بعد أن اخذتنا الفلسفة والعلوم بعيدا فنسينا وجودنا نحن، وكيف أننا اعدنا الاعتبار لوجودنا من خلال هذا الفن الجديد. اختزال ثمرة كل الحضارة الاوروبية في فن الرواية يبين اهميتها، وكيف أن الرواية الاخلاقية هي كل رواية تكتشف جانبا من الوجود بقية مجهولا الى الان.

لطالما كانت معادلة تفاعل الادب والفلسفة تثيرني ومن خلال هذا الكتاب الرزين الصغير اكتشفت رائدا اخرا من رواد هذه المدرسة، كونديرا الفيلسوف والروائي، والذي يصر على ان كونه روائيا يأتي اولا...

على الرغم من كون الكتاب مكون من سبعة نصوص مستقلة فهو متعة كبيرة، وكل مكمل لبعضه، يأخذنا الكاتب في رحلة جميلة مع تاريخ الرواية وابرز الاسماء والروايات التي يعتبرها محطات تطور هذا الفن منذ سرفانتس الى الان...

[Manochehr.Zare · Rating 1 out of 5]

پرت و پلاهای جناب کوندرا

[S©aP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Non avrei potuto comprendere questo libro quando lo acquistai, trentuno anni fa, appena pubblicato. Non avevo il bagaglio adatto a farlo. Perciò non ne completai la lettura, che trovai poco interessante e troppo concettuale. Trentuno anni di letture e riflessioni me lo hanno invece reso, oggi, istruttivo e "seminale". La lucidità dell'analisi e delle idee che qui sono esposte hanno per me riscritto la logica e la storia del Romanzo, oltre che del lettore; marcato finalmente le differenze tra scrittore e romanziere; illuminato le ombre di autori come Kafka, Sterne, Musil o Faulkner; di registi cinematografici come Fellini; confermato certe convinzioni su traduttori e traduzioni, e qualche certezza su certa razionalità intrinseca alla lingua francese e ai francesi. Hanno reso giustizia anche a M. Kundera scrittore, che aveva sempre suscitato in me ben più di una perplessità. In molti passaggi questo testo mi ha anche entusiasmato (vedi in particolare il capitolo intitolato: "Sessantasei parole"), sorprendendomi con definizioni, idee, analisi e concetti che, pur se formulati prima del 1986, calzano in modo impressionante con la realtà di oggi.

[أحمد الغزي · Rating 4 out of 5]

كما كنت متوقعاً ؛ لازمتني الدهشة ورافقني الانبهار طيلة إبحاري في هذا الكتاب !
لـ كونديرا لغة خاصة به ، كلماته لا تنبع من قريحته بل من دهاليز عقله ، يدهشني فيه أن كل كلمة يكتبها كأنه يضع تحتها خطين ، أي أنها في غاية الأهمية .
وعلى الرغم من كون هذا الكتاب تقني بحت - أو هكذا يفترض على الأقل - لكن ميلان تجاوز تقنيات الرواية إلى ما هو أبعد منها بكثير ، فناقش ( تاريخ الرواية ) بتوسع ، وتعمق في أبجديات نشأتها وتحدث كثيراً عن الأفذاذ الذين مروا في تاريخها ، لذا أحسست بعد فراغي من الكتاب أن العنوان كان مضللاً ، وكان حريٌ به أن يسميه ( نظرات في تاريخ الرواية أو نشأتها ) ، فالجانب الفني غاب تماماً عن هذا الكتاب .
وكما هي العادة ، تأبي الفلسفة إلا أن تطل برأسها مع كل كتابات كونديرا ، وكمحب للفلسفة استمتعت كثيراً بعبارات المؤلف والتي يحتاج بعضها إلى إعادة القراءة مراراً لإدارك مغزاها ، كما أن نظرته لبعض الأمور وبعض القضايا كانت متفردةً تماماً ، وكأنه يقدم لك فتحاً جديداً وزاوية أخرى لم تنظر منها من قبل أبداً .
ما عاب الكتاب بنظري هو المبالغة في استعراض تجارب سابقة في عالم الرواية ، والتي قد تكون غامضة بالنسبة لمن هم أقل ثقافة في هذا المجال من المؤلف . بل كان يتحدث عن شخصيات وردت في روايات أعتقد أن الأغلبية لم يقرأوها ، فبدا حديثه كالطلاسم !
أيضاً يلاحظ في بعض المواضع في الكتاب أن أسلوب الكاتب يرتفع كثيراً فوق مستوى بعض القراء ، وكأن الكتاب وضع للنخبة .
والأمر الذي ضايقني كثيراً هو تخبط الإحالات ، فملحق الهوامش الذي وضع في آخر الكتاب كان ضائعاً بمعنى الكلمة ، لا ترقيماً ولا موضوعاً ، ففي أحد المواضع أحالنا الكاتب للهوامش للتعريف ب ( موزيل ) ، لأفاجأ بأن الهوامش خالية من التعريف به ، بل انتقل الترقيم من الرقم " 8 " إلى الرقم " 10 " مباشرة ، قافزاً فوق موزيل هذا !
بل إن أرقام الإحالات في متن الكتاب قاربت الأربعين إحالة ، بينما الهوامش لا تحتوي إلا على 23 إحالة !
وفي الجزء الرابع من الكتاب بالغ كونديرا في استعراض خلفيته الموسيقية ، وبدا أن طفولته وشبابه اللذان أمضاهما في دراسة وكتابة الموسيقى ألقت بظلالها على مجاله الأدبي ، وحقيقة لم أفهم محاولة الربط بين وحدة البناء الدرامي في الرواية وبين وحدة الاتساق الموسيقي في السمفونية !
كما أن استعراضه لبعض روائع " باخ " و " بتهوفن " ومحاولة ربط أجزائها ببعض الروايات الكلاسيكية المشهورة لم تقنعني .
وحريٌ القول أنه بعد هذا الكتاب بدأت أشعر أن فن الرواية جزءٌ من نظرية النانو ، وأن كتابة الرواية يماثل وضع نظرية مشابهة لنظريات نيوتن !.. أو هكذا أراد المؤلف أن يقول لنا ، أو أن يوصله لنا بطريقة غير مباشرة . وحقيقة فقد بالغ كونديرا في استعراض مواطن القوة في بعض الروايات التي لا أشك أنها جاءت بالصدفة المحضة ولم يقصد مؤلفوها ذلك . فبدا مثل الذي يمسك ورقة بيضاء خالية ليظهر أوجه الحسن فيها : بيضاء ، نقية ، جميلة ، خاليةً من الكدر ، أطرافها متساوية ، زواياها متسقة .. وفي النهاية هي مجرد ورقة
!
نقطة جديرة بالذكر : الترجمة مدهشة ، والمترجمة ( أمل منصور ) عبقرية ، فقد أضافت للكتاب بعداً آخر وأفقاً زاخر أبحرتُ فيه طويلاً . لذا عزمت عن البحث عن ترجمات أخرى لها .
.
الخلاصة : الكتاب جميل جداً لغوياً ، عميق جداً فلسفياً ، لكنه غير مفيد قياساً بالموضوع الذي يعبر عنه عنوانه . وفصوله مشتتة لا رابط بينها ، فبدت أشبه بالملصقات الملونة الجميلة التي يلصقها صبي على لوحته ؛ كل ملصق لوحده جميل ، لكنها كلوحة لا تعبر إلا عن الفوضى !

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Kundra because he doesn’t imprison me in a fastened frame of a classic narration. Reading Kundra seems as if you meet an old friend after ages in a cafe shop, and while she/he relates her / his life story, you zip your coffee, listen to the cafe music, hear some chats and laughs at nabouring tables, look at the peddlers at side walk, or a passing tramvay, … as life is flowing around, ….

کوندرا را به این دلیل بسیار دوست دارم که مرا در چهارچوب بسته ی یک روایت زندانی نمی کند. خواندن کونرا مثل این است که دوستی را پس از سال ها در یک کافه ملاقات کنید و در حالی که به قصه ی روزگار رفته ی او گوش می دهید، قهوه تان را می نوشید، به موسیقی که از بلندگوی کافه پخش می شود، گوش می کنید، گهگاه متوجه ی صحبت ها و خنده هایی از میزهای کناری می شوید، صدای عبور و مرور خیابان در پس پشت این همه جاری ست، دوره گردی چیزی می فروشد، عبور تراموای، و همه چیز، درست مثل خود زندگی، ...

ـ هنررمان توسط پرویزهمایون پور ترجمه و در 1377 منتشر شده است.

[The Frahorus · Rating 3 out of 5]

In questo saggio sono raccolti sette testi che, come lo stesso Milan Kundera dice nella premessa, sono nati in circostanze particolari e concepiti per essere un giorno raccolti in un libro e tutti riguardano le sue riflessioni sull'arte del romanzo. Come lui stesso dice non vogliono essere delle regole ma semplici riflessioni e pensieri sul romanzo, su cosa esso sia, su come si è evoluto, lo stile che lui utilizza quando scrive. Ecco le sette parti:
1) La denigrata eredità di Cervantes (dove Kundera ci parla della sua concezione personale del romanzo europeo);
2) Dialogo sull'arte del romanzo (intervista a Kundera da parte di Christian Salmon del "Paris Review" sulle sue abitudini di scrittore);
3) Note ispirate dai "Sonnambuli" (sono delle riflessioni di Kundera sul suo testo "Sonnambuli");
4) Dialogo sull'arte della composizione (seconda intervista, anzi colloquio con Christian Salmon dove Kundera ci parla dei problemi artistici o "artigianali" del romanzo e della sua architettura);
5) In qualche posto là dietro (sono riflessioni di Kundera sui romanzi di Franz Kafka);
6) Sessantaquattro parole (una sorta di piccolo dizionario che raccoglie le parole-chiave che attraversano i romanzi di Kundera e le parole-chiave della sua estetica del romanzo);
7) Discorso di Gerusalemme: il romanzo e l'Europa (discorso di ringraziamento di Kundera che tenne in occasione della vittoria del Premio Gerusalemme nel 1985)

Consigliato a chi ama Milan Kundera.

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Milan Kundera diz a determinada altura, neste "The Art of the Novel" (1986), que em julho de 1985 tomou a decisão de não mais conferir entrevistas. Parece um preciosismo, uma excentricidade artística proveniente de um ego excessivamente inflamado. Mas ao ler esta obra percebemos duas coisas: Kundera é alguém muito cioso da forma das suas obras, com a música como berço soube usar todo o seu formalismo para criar uma literatura com formas por vezes quase matemáticas; por outro lado, olhando aos reparos que vai fazendo sobre a imprensa e traduções feitas do seu trabalho nos anos 1970, percebe-se que o cuidado era pouco, nomeadamente com um autor provindo de um país escondido atrás de uma "cortina de ferro".

[imagem:
https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...]
Versão audiobook apresentado numa belíssima narração de Graeme Malcolm

Este livro tem quase 40 anos e por isso mesmo sente-se um certo discurso datado. Não é só a excentricidade de Kundera, embora peque um pouco nesse campo, na verdade em 2021 já não estamos habituados a aceitar este elitismo autoral, algo que se torna excessivo pela sua constante defesa da Europa como centro do mundo. Ainda assim, se soubermos triar o que nos dá Kundera, podemos aqui encontrar muitas pequenas pérolas sobre o fundamental da arte literária, em particular sobre o Romance (Novel), a sua escrita mas em particular a sua estética. Para o efeito deixo algumas das citações mais interessantes do livro:

[imagem: https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...]
Milan Kundera, nascido em 1929

The Definition of Novel

“The great prose form in which an author thoroughly explores, by means of experimental selves (characters), some great themes of existence.”

The History of the Novel

“all the great existential themes Heidegger analyzes in Being and Time — considering them to have been neglected by all earlier European philosophy — had been unveiled, displayed, illuminated by four centuries of the novel (four centuries of European reincarnation of the novel). In its own way, through its own logic, the novel discovered the various dimensions of existence one by one: with Cervantes and his contemporaries, it inquires into the nature of adventure; with Richardson, it begins to examine "what happens inside," to unmask the secret life of the feelings; with Balzac, it discovers man's rootedness in history; with Flaubert, it explores the terra previously incognita of the everyday; with Tolstoy, it focuses on the intrusion of the irrational in human behavior and decisions. It probes time: the elusive past with Proust, the elusive present with Joyce. With Thomas Mann, it examines the role of the myths from the remote past that control our present actions. Et cetera, et cetera.”

The Psychology of the Novel

“The term is, of course, inexact and approximate. Let's avoid it and use a periphrasis: Richardson set the novel on its way to the exploration of man's interior life. We know his great successors: the Goethe of Werther, Laclos, Constant, then Stendhal and the other writers of his century. The apogee of that evolution is to be found, it seems to me, in Proust and in Joyce.

Joyce and the Psychology of the Present

“Joyce analyzes something still more ungraspable than Proust's "lost time": the present moment. There would seem to be nothing more obvious, more tangible and palpable, than the present moment. And yet it eludes us completely.

All the sadness of life lies in that fact. In the course of a single second, our senses of sight, of hearing, of smell, register (knowingly or not) a swarm of events, and a parade of sensations and ideas passes through our heads. Each instant represents a little universe, irrevocably forgotten in the next instant. Now, Joyce's great microscope manages to stop, to seize, that fleeting instant and make us see it. But the quest for the self ends, yet again, in a paradox: The more powerful the lens of the microscope observing the self, the more the self and its uniqueness elude us; beneath the great Joycean lens that breaks the soul down into atoms, we are all alike. But if the self and its uniqueness cannot be grasped in man's interior life, then where and how can we grasp it?”

The Novel Form and Music Notation

“M.K.: Each of the parts in my novels could carry a musical indication: moderato, presto, adagio, and so on.

C.S.: So the tempo is determined by the relation between the length of a part and the number of chapters it contains?

M.K.: Look at Life Is Elsewhere from that viewpoint: Part One: 11 chapters in 59 pages; moderato Part Two: 14 chapters in 24 pages; allegretto Part Three: 28 chapters in 65 pages; allegro Part Four: 25 chapters in 20 pages; prestissimo Part Five: 11 chapters in 81 pages; moderato Part Six: 17 chapters in 17

pages; adagio Part Seven: 23 chapters in 18 pages; presto You see: Part Five has 81 pages and only 11 chapters; a slow, tranquil pace: moderato.

Part Four has 25 chapters in 20 pages! Which gives a feeling of great speed: prestissimo.

C.S.: Part Six has 17 chapters in only 17 pages. If I understand you correctly that means that it has a fairly rapid tempo. And yet you call it adagio!

“M.K.: Because the tempo is further determined by something else: the relation between the length of a part and the "real" time of the event it describes. Part Five, "The Poet Is Jealous," represents a whole year of life, whereas Part Six, "The Middle-Aged Man," deals with only a few hours. Here the brevity of the chapters functions to slow time down, to fix a single great moment. . . . Contrasts in tempi are enormously important to me. ”

The Novel and the Media

“the novel too is ravaged by the termites of reduction, which reduce not only the meaning of the world but also the meaning of works of art.

Like all of culture, the novel is more and more in the hands of the mass media; as agents of the unification of the planet's history, the media amplify and channel the reduction process; they distribute throughout the world the same simplifications and stereotypes easily acceptable by the greatest number, by everyone, by all mankind. And it doesn't much matter that different political interests appear in the various organs of the media. Behind these surface differences reigns a common spirit.

You have only to glance at American or European political weeklies, of the left or the right: they all have the same view of life, reflected in the same ordering of the table of contents, under the same headings, in the same journalistic phrasing, the same vocabulary, and the same style, in the same artistic tastes, and in the same ranking of things they deem important or insignificant. This common spirit of the mass media, camouflaged by political diversity, is the spirit of our time. And this spirit seems to me contrary to the spirit of the novel.

The novel's spirit is the spirit of complexity. Every novel says to the reader: "Things are not as simple as you think." That is the novel's eternal truth, but it grows steadily harder to hear amid the din of easy, quick answers that come faster than the question and block it off."

The Translation

“In 1968 and 1969, The Joke was translated into all the Western languages. But what surprises! In France, the translator rewrote the novel by ornamenting my style. In England, the publisher cut out all the reflective passages, eliminated the musicological chapters, changed the order of the parts, recomposed the novel. Another country: I meet my translator, a man who knows not a word of Czech. "Then how did you translate it?"

"With my heart." And he pulls a photo of me from his wallet. He was so congenial that I almost believed it was actually possible to translate by some telepathy of the heart. Of course, it turned out to be much simpler: he had worked from the French rewrite, as had the translator in Argentina. Another country: the translation was done from the Czech. I open the book and happen on Helena's monologue. The long sentences that in my original go on for a whole paragraph at a time are broken up into a multitude of short ones. . . . The shock of The Joke's translations left a permanent scar on me.”

The Planet of Inexperience

“Inexperience. The original title considered for The Unbearable Lightness of Being: "The Planet of Inexperience." Inexperience as a quality of the human condition. We are born one time only, we can never start a new life equipped with the experience we've gained from a previous one. We leave childhood without knowing what youth is, we marry without knowing what it is to be married, and even when we enter old age, we don't know what it is we're heading for: the old are innocent children of their old age. In that sense, man's world is the planet of inexperience."

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[Matthew Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning of this started really well with some great quotes on the "art of the novel". Notably, the quote,

'If the novel should really disappear, it will do so not because it has exhausted its powers but it exists in a world grown alien to it.'

That's just a fantastic quote. There are more but why would I write them all here? That would be like those terrible trailers that show the best bits of the movie; then you go into the cinema and come out and think, oh. Believe me though, there are some more.

The other parts, are then kinda disappointing. Kundera goes off on his Kundera-esque ramblings. He explains his fascination of music and how all (but one, at this point, I think) his novels have seven parts (even this, I noticed, The Art of the Novel).

Then there's a fairly lengthy explanation about music and types of music and speed and Beethoven. I listen to music most of the day, and listen far more than many of the people I know do, but my interest in technical music doesn't go very far.

There's a part with 'Sixty-three Words' which I was excited for and then disappointed. Instead of words he found important to the novel, and more lessons, it was more Kundera rambling, leaving me looking for the relevance at times. He tells us how he once got rid of a translator because they changed his semi-colons into full stops. Most of the words he ends up quoting from his books: Life is Elsewhere, The Joke and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. He even uses one of the words to justify doing something in one of his novels. Parts for me did come across as being arrogant. Maybe that isn't the right word...his tone, possibly, irked me at points. In one of the conversations within the book, a question and answer, the interviewer says to Kundera that the seven parts of TBoLaF could have been written as seven different novels, if he fleshed them out. He replies by saying, 'But if I had written seven separate novels, I'd have no hope of "encompassing the complexity of existence in the modern world" in one single book.' Granted, he says, hope, not that he has indeed achieved that feat, but still. I don't know, at times I did roll my eyes a little. I was expecting more talk about the novel, how to write the novel, the struggles of writing a novel, more to do with the novel...but instead, parts just felt like reading another Kundera book, him talking about things and then connecting them to other things and himself and before you know, he's spoken for pages about music and you forget the original point was the novel.

[Shwan Majeed · Rating 4 out of 5]

عالَمُ النظريّات ليس عالَمي. هذه التأمّلات هي تأمّلاتُ مُمارسٍ لفنّ الرواية. فمجموع أعمال كلّ روائيّ تنطوي على رُؤية ضمنيّة عن تاريخ الرواية وعن ماهيّتها. هذا التصوّر عن الرواية المُحايث لرواياتي هو الذي جَعلتُه يُفصحُ عن نفسه في هذا الكتاب. -ميلان كونديرا


في هذا الكتاب يتكلم الكاتب ميلان كونديرا عن اهم مميزات والعمل على كتابة الروايات, وفي الجهة الاخرى يسلط الضوء على أبرز الاعمال الادبية او الروائية عبر التاريخ وخاصة الادب الاوروبي والروسي, يتعمق في هذه الانواع من الروايات ويتكلم عن أبر الاسماء في عالم الرواية, الرواية لم تطرق لتطور الكبير في الروايات في ما بعد عام الثمانينات ولكن تعتبر مصدر جيد لمن قراء الكثير في الادب الكلاسيكي.
الكتاب يتألف من سبعة أقسام وهناك القسمين الذي يتكلم عنه بشكل حواري جميل ونستطيع ان نستفاد منه في حالة ان تكون قراءة الكثير عن الكتب الكلاسيكية ولديك الخبرة بها, وهناك ايضا قسم يتكلم عن بعض الكلمات الشاسعة في الاستخدام بالروايات, مثلما قلنا الكتاب مفيد للأشخاص الذي لديهم قراءة او خبرة في الادب الكلاسيكي وخاصة الاوروبي والروسيز

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The world of theories is not my world. These reflections are reflections of a practitioner of the art of the novel. The totality of the works of each novelist implies an implicit vision of the history of the novel and its essence. It is this perception of the narrower narrative of my novels that made him reveal himself in this book. Milan Kundera


In this book, the author Milan Kundera talks about the most important characteristics and work on writing novels, and on the other side highlights the most important literary or fictional works throughout history, especially European and Russian literature, delves into these types of novels and talks about the most prominent names in the world of the novel, the novel has not been touched The great development of novels in the post-1980s, but it is considered a good source for many readers of classic literature.
The book consists of seven sections and there are two sections that talk about it in a beautiful dialogue and we can benefit from it if you read a lot about classic books and you have experience with them, and there is also a section that talks about some of the vast words used in novels, as we said the book is useful for people who have reading Or experience in classical literature, especially European and Russian

[Nahed.E · Rating 2 out of 5]

لكي تقرأ هذا الكتاب لابد أن تكون قد قرأت اشهر اعمال كونديرا ( وهذا ما لم افعله ) مثل كائن لا تحتمل خفته ، والخلود ، والضحك والنسيان ، والحياة في مكان آخر
لأن هدف الكتاب أولا وأخيرا هو تحليل الشخصيات الموجودة في تلك الروايات مع تحليل آخر لغيرها من الكتب المشهورة وربطها بالتطور الذي شهده العالم من ناحية ، والذي شهده فن كتابة الرواية من ناحية أخري
لقد جربت قراءة هذا الكتاب لسببين :
إنني أريد أن أعرف إذا كان كونديرا في كتابة الكتب هو نفسه في كتابة الروايات
والسبب الآخر هو معرفتي أن الكتاب يتحدث في داخله عن كثير من الروايات العالمية ويتطلب ثقافة عالية في القراءة..
ولقد وجدت كونديرا مختلفاً تماما عن طريقة كتابة الروايات
فلا تعبيرات غريبة ولا مشاهد مفتعلة بلا داعي
فقط الحديث عن فن الرواية
وفعلا وجدت الكتاب به ثقافة عالية .. وكثير من الروايات التي تحدث عنها فعلا تستحق القراءة
وقد اعطيته نجمتين
نجمة لثقافته ونوعية الروايات التي تحدث عنها
والنجمة الأخري لتحليله لكتابات كافكا والروايات ( الكافكاوية ) علي حد قوله
وبإذن الله سأجرب إحدي الروايات التي ذكرها لكافكا قريباً ...
هناك كتاب آخر لكونديرا ليس رواية اسمه ( الستارة ) يتحدث فيه عن الأدب أيضاً
ربما يكون لي معه موعد في يوم ما
!