From Kundera's The Art of Fiction, we can see that "being" is a topic he talks about tirelessly, and the novel view based on "being" is the basis of Kundera's novel creation. The ultimate proposition of metaphysical existence has also experienced a process of constant change and development in the history of western philosophy. To understand Kundera's novels, we must first understand the deep-rooted philosophical background of his novels.

What is existence? Since Oedipus solved the mystery of the Sphinx, the mystery of existence has puzzled many people and led them to the solemn altar. Aristotle said: "The question that has been asked since ancient times, the question that still needs to be asked now, the question that will be asked forever in the future, and the question that we can never live in peace are: What is existence? And this is also asking: What is ontology? " However, this only explains the ultimate meaning of existence and does not solve the problem of explanation of existence. The ancient Greeks said, "Know yourself." But the "self" at that time was more the embodiment of the will of the gods; In the Middle Ages, self became the law of God. Under the illumination of divinity, westerners gained a strong sense of self, although there was no lack of ignorance. After the Renaissance, God disappeared from people's hearts, so Duke declared, "I think, therefore I am." Take the rational will of self as the legal premise of human existence; This seems to let us hear the ancient Greek philosopher parmenides put forward that "thinking and existence are unified". Heidegger said: "when you use the word' existence', it is obvious that you have long been familiar with what this means, but although we once believed that we understood it, we are at a loss now." This is all kinds of alienation after human beings enter modern society, which leads philosophers to rethink "existence", that is, to find the root of "existence". So the existentialist Sartre put forward that "existence" is the first, and "existence precedes essence".

Milan Kundera opened up a new direction on the existential road taken by his predecessors. Kundera looks at and thinks about existence not from the ontology of existence, but from the realistic situation of human existence. In his view, novelists are explorers of survival. If a novelist can't reveal the reality of human existence, then he is unbearable, at least not profound. The purpose of novel writing is to grasp the self's deep thinking about existence. The novel examines not reality, but existence, not a fait accompli. It is "the possible realm of man, everything that man can be, everything that man can do". Milan Kundera is basically pessimistic about the real world. He thinks that life is a trap. People were born without requirements and sealed in bodies they never chose until they died of old age. The integrated world eliminates the possibility of people running away.

Based on this creative view, the characters in Milan Kundera's novels are more like "experimental codes" that exist to explain existence. The plot, scene and discussion of the novel are all around the theme of "existence". All the words are just notes played on the theme words under the baton of the novelist, which makes Kundera's novels always appear in a serious and playful way, which constitutes his unique personal style.

The lightness of existence and the heaviness of existence

The Unbearable Lightness of Life is one of Kundera's novels, which is most familiar to readers and has won the most reputation for writers. Since it was published in China in 1980s, it has been translated into The Unbearable Lightness of Life. It was not until a few years ago that it got its present title. Although it is only a word order change, the title and theme are closer. However, even the revised translation still weakens the metaphysical meaning of the original name. Kundera said in an interview: "Many friends advised me to give up the title" Unbearable Lightness in Life ". Can't I at least delete the word "existence"? When encountering this word, translators tend to use simpler expressions instead:' (existence',' life',' (conditions' and so on. " Being is not a concrete thing, so Kundera thinks that Hamlet's "to be or not to be" is by no means a question of "to be or not to be", but a metaphysical inquiry. Therefore, the essence of unbearable lightness of life is "unbearable lightness of life".

Nietzsche thinks that our world is an "eternal cycle". Every second of our lives has been repeated countless times. Our life can be previewed. One day, our life will reappear in the way we have experienced, and the former will repeat indefinitely. If this is the case in the world, we will be crucified like Jesus, and the unbearable burden will weigh heavily on everyone. But the foundation of the existence of this world is precisely the non-existence of reincarnation, and life cannot be rehearsed. We can neither compare it with our previous life, nor make it perfect before we spend it. The stream of life can only flood on accidental land, and people live wantonly and get the pleasure of floating in mid-air. However, is it really tragic if it is heavy, or is it really beautiful if it is light?

Thomas is the representative of this problem. He is a divorced surgeon for many years, with many lovers and a romantic and happy life. However, Teresa's intrusion broke his freedom, and Thomas has been wandering between loving Teresa and pursuing freedom. Teresa is neither a lover nor a wife to him, but a baby "placed in a basket covered with resin and floated to the shore of his bed." After the divorce, Thomas was happy and comfortable. Marriage is the bondage of responsibility for him, which hinders him from experiencing the joy of life. In countless "sexual friendships", he has gained a beautiful life. Teresa is undoubtedly the terminator of this life. She held Thomas's hand tightly, making him feel the responsibility of his long-lost life and appreciate the beauty, but he was unwilling to give up his "freedom" for many years. For Thomas, living alone or combining with Teresa is not a simple question of love, but related to his understanding of the possibility of existence. Always relaxed, he chose "it must be" under the impetus of six accidents.

Seven years later, Teresa's departure made Thomas return to a free body, which suddenly released his burden and even made him feel the beauty after sadness. Thomas smelled the warmth of life. However, the heavy burden that followed completely knocked him down. He has learned to feel the pain of others, and he finally realizes that he can never return to his illusory life. He returned to Prague, found Teresa, and found the weight of existence.

If Thomas has been hovering between light and heavy, Teresa also tries to accept Thomas' philosophy of existence. When she couldn't stand Thomas' physical betrayal, she began to take a light test and had a relationship with an engineer, but this behavior only brought her deeper pain and heavier burden. Doing one's duty is Teresa's behavior, which seriously puts her in a corner of pain. Although she tried to approach her lover Thomas in behavior and spirit, she failed in the end. She has been carrying a heavy burden, which is just an attraction to Thomas.

The opposition and dilemma between light and heavy choices constitute a basic living situation for human beings. Everyone's life can be proved by this philosophical proposition. It has nothing to do with good or evil. Kundera didn't give a clear answer whether to choose Qinghai or Chongqing. He just raised the question and gave an explanation. In an extremely absurd era, the boundary between light and heavy is vague or even non-existent. Pursuing meaning and choosing commitment will not necessarily bring the expected heaviness, but will often bring unbearable lightness to life. However, does this lightness also include the heaviness of life?

The conflict between spirit and flesh

Body and soul are two basic forms of human existence. Humans always idealize the unity of their body and soul in order to grasp a more real and emotional self. However, Kundera reveals the separation of body and soul in a specific sexual situation, which makes human beings fall into uncertainty about themselves again.

Thomas and Teresa love each other, but they have different attitudes towards spirit and flesh: Thomas believes that love and sex are irrelevant, and love will not make people want to have sex, but will cause the desire to sleep together. In his view, making love subordinate to sex is the strangest idea of the creator. According to Thomas, soul and body are consciously separated from each other. He loves Teresa deeply and has sex with different women at the same time. He is faithful to love, but he behaves dissolutely.

Teresa demanded the absolute unity of spirit and flesh. Teresa has a beautiful mother with a vulgar heart. She has been instilling an idea in Teresa. Teresa, you are no different from others. Your body is the same as others. You have nothing to hide. Teresa's mother walked naked in the room in broad daylight, which made Teresa feel ashamed and angry. Teresa has struggled with this idea all her life. She believes that people are different, and the soul determines this personality, denying the difference of the body and thus denying the difference of the soul. With such a struggle, she came to Thomas and sought salvation. She showed him that she was unique, but Thomas mixed it with other women, caressed their bodies in the same way, and threw her back into the primitive world. Teresa's jealousy became a heavy pain to her death, and this pain originated from Teresa's absolute need for spirit and flesh.

The conflict between spirit and flesh shows that human beings are unable to grasp themselves. As the basic category of human existence, it highlights the paradox of human existence, that is, people do not want to live in the separation of soul and flesh, but can only seek realistic comfort through the compromise and reconciliation of soul and flesh. Kundera took this opportunity to criticize the division and alienation of pedestrians caused by modern society.

Politics and kitsch

Kithcs is a resounding word in Kundera's works. In the dialogue with the writer Elg Leibly, Kundera interprets Kithcs as "beauty that has been told a thousand times" and "collective lies that mean pretending to be affectionate". In Kundera's works, kithcs is no longer a description of any specific scene in each category, nor is it limited to art, it has become politics.

Western critics generally believe that kitsch is not only a moral concept, but also an aesthetic category for Kundera. Kundera believes that kitsch originates from the aesthetic ideal of "unconditionally acknowledging existence". Vulgar people specify a basic unacceptable range of human existence and exclude everything from this range, such as defecation, a physiological phenomenon closely related to people's lives every day, but many people deliberately avoid talking about it and everything related to it. Chapter 6 of The Unbearable Lightness of Life, The Great March, is a movement against kitsch. Its theory began with "shit". Kundera cited the example of Yakov, the son of Stalin. Yakov was captured by the Germans during World War II and shared a toilet with a group of British officers. The British were dissatisfied with his smelly and messy toilet and turned to German officers in the concentration camp. However, the German chief refused to discuss the issue of feces, and Yakov was humiliated and jumped on the power grid to protest. In Kundera's view, people's aversion to feces is a basic kitsch. Vulgarity is a basic condition of human existence, which is everywhere. Different kitsch has different internal meanings and critical dimensions. If aesthetic kitsch refers to the low-level artistic taste of English and sentimental works, then political kitsch only blindly follows the established order and concepts, cultural kitsch refers to the recognition of most, mobile and popular values, and anthropological kitsch refers to the optimistic blind obedience and refusal to think on the premise of unconditionally acknowledging the existence of life. "Vulgarity is a stopover in forgetfulness", because of kitsch, life lingers between authenticity and non-authenticity, the free existence of human beings becomes doubtful, and things lose their original side and flow to an elusive void.

Politics is the basic life background of the characters in Kundera's novels. Political kitsch is another focus of Kundera's criticism, and his personal experience of political persecution has made him have a deeper understanding of this issue. Kundera said: "Politics does not produce kitsch, but it needs kitsch. Any political movement is based on kitsch and the desire to confuse others. " In The Unbearable Lightness of Life, the US Senate smiles at the children and the authorities wave at the parade in Prague Square. "kitsch is the aesthetic ideal of all politicians, and it is also the aesthetic ideal of all politicians' political parties and political activities. "

Thomas and his lover Sabina are both conscious resisters of kitsch. Thomas, a man who treats life with surgical thinking, aims to resist conformity. For Thomas, the real difficulty is not to resist "it must be". Thomas's escape from his first marriage and his motherland under autocratic rule all illustrate this point. The real difficulty is resistance itself. In the rule kingdom of kitsch centralization, the left and right answers are given in advance and are valid for any question. The dictatorship of the mind is the supreme rule, so Kundera also said that the mortal enemy of kitsch is "a person who likes to ask questions." A question is like a knife, which will cut the scenery of the stage and let us see what is hidden behind it. At the same time, kitsch can easily become a trap, and resistance to kitsch may also become a part of kitsch. For Thomas, when he called on the authorities to release the lives of political prisoners, a thousand words were also called "it must be so", and resistance itself became kitsch; For sabina, when her paintings were publicized as anti-communist works, she deeply felt the pity of the western world for the motherland that was deeply mired in the disaster of centralization. However, this pity is also a kitsch and a political show based on "fraternity" in the West. So, in the eyes of "sympathy", sabina left angrily.

Flantz, a French professor who has always praised sabina, is the concentrated representative of kitsch that Kundera wants to criticize. Flantz is an optimistic dreamer. He established a career as a philosophy professor at the age of 20, but he was not satisfied with the suffocating life of scholars. He is "eager to associate with people, walk side by side, and eager to talk to people." He is full of passion, likes to travel and parade in the street with others. "We all need someone to take care of us." He did not hesitate to take part in the "March" in support of Cambodia. Flantz lives in the eyes of others. She is eager to show the meaning of existence to her lover, to the public and to her inner self, and expects to be recognized by the outside world. His value identification is not based on the pursuit of value itself, but on living for others. Finally, when he died in a meaningless accidental fight on the streets of Bangkok, his death was not only tragic, but also ironic, which was the end of kitsch. In Flantz, we see the finiteness of human beings, the loss of human self and the distortion of value, all of which reflect the possibility of kitsch.

Different from many novelists, Kundera's novels point to the dilemma of human existence in modern society-in what way? Thomas, Teresa, sabina and Flantz are just individuals who exist in different ways. Kundera only asked and didn't answer. In an unrepeatable past and an unpredictable future, we can only grope our way forward in the dark and find our own light of value.

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