Milan Kundera (edit name/settings)

Ariel Aguayo edited the bio of Milan Kundera Thursday, May 27, 2010.

• Edited Official Website: http://http://www.kundera.de/english/

Ariel Aguayo edited the bio of Milan Kundera Wednesday, May 26, 2010.

• Edited Place of Birth: Brno,,Czech RepublicBrno,,Czechoslovakia

Ariel Aguayo edited the bio of Milan Kundera Wednesday, May 26, 2010.

• Edited Official Website: http://<a rel="freelink" href="http://www.kundera.de/english/" class=" external">http://www.kundera.de/english/</a>http://
• Genres: novels, short stories, poetry, plays, essays

Ariel Aguayo edited the summary of Milan Kundera Wednesday, May 26, 2010.

• from Kundera's Wikipedia page...
       Milan Kundera (Czech pronunciationisis a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke.
       Kundera has written in both Czech and French. He revises the French translations of all his books; these therefore are not considered translations but original works. His books were banned by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia until the downfall of this government in the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
       His father, Ludvík Kundera was an important Czech musicologist and pianist who served as the head of the Janáček Music Academy in Brno from 1948 to 1961. Milan learned to play the piano from his father, later going on to study musicology and musical composition. Musicological influences and references can be found throughout his work; he has even gone so far as including notes in the text to make a point.
       Kundera belonged to the generation of young Czechs who had had little or no experience of the pre-war democratic Czechoslovak Republic. Their ideology was greatly influenced by the experiences of World War II and the German occupation. Still in his teens, Kundera joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia which seized power in 1948.
       Kundera completed his secondary school studies in Brno in 1948. He studied literature and aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. After two terms, he transferred to the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where he first attended lectures in film direction and script writing. In 1950, his studies were briefly interrupted by political interference.
       In 1950, he and another writer, Jan Trefulka, were expelled from the party for "anti-party activities." Trefulka described the incident in his novella Pršelo jim štěstí (Happiness Rained On Them, 1962). Kundera also used the incident as an inspiration for the main theme of his novel Žert (The Joke, 1967).
       After graduating in 1952, the Film Faculty appointed him a lecturer in world literature. In 1956 Milan Kundera was readmitted into the Party. He was expelled for the second time in 1970. Kundera, along with other reform communist writers such as Pavel Kohout, were partly involved in the 1968 Prague Spring. This brief period of reformist activities was crushed by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
       Kundera remained committed to reforming Czech communism, and argued vehemently in print with fellow Czech writer Václav Havel, saying, essentially, that everyone should remain calm and that "nobody is being locked up for his opinions yet," and "the significance of the Prague Autumn may ultimately be greater than that of the Prague Spring." Finally, however, Kundera relinquished his reformist dreams and moved to France in 1975. He taught for a few years in the University of Rennes. He has been a French citizen since 1981.
  
  

Ariel Aguayo edited the bio of Milan Kundera Wednesday, May 19, 2010.

• Edited Nationality: CzechFrench (formally Czech)
• Edited Official Website: http://www.kundera.de/english/http://<a rel="freelink" href="http://www.kundera.de/english/" class=" external">http://www.kundera.de/english/</a>

Ariel Aguayo edited the summary of Milan Kundera Wednesday, May 19, 2010.

• from Kundera's Wikipedia page...
       Milan Kundera (Czech pronunciationis a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke.
       Kundera has written in both Czech and French. He revises the French translations of all his books; these therefore are not considered translations but original works. His books were banned by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia until the downfall of this government in the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
       His father, Ludvík Kundera was an important Czech musicologist and pianist who served as the head of the Janáček Music Academy in Brno from 1948 to 1961. Milan learned to play the piano from his father, later going on to study musicology and musical composition. Musicological influences and references can be found throughout his work; he has even gone so far as including notes in the text to make a point.
       Kundera belonged to the generation of young Czechs who had had little or no experience of the pre-war democratic Czechoslovak Republic. Their ideology was greatly influenced by the experiences of World War II and the German occupation. Still in his teens, Kundera joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia which seized power in 1948.
       Kundera completed his secondary school studies in Brno in 1948. He studied literature and aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. After two terms, he transferred to the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where he first attended lectures in film direction and script writing. In 1950, his studies were briefly interrupted by political interference.
       In 1950, he and another writer, Jan Trefulka, were expelled from the party for "anti-party activities." Trefulka described the incident in his novella Pršelo jim štěstí (Happiness Rained On Them, 1962). Kundera also used the incident as an inspiration for the main theme of his novel Žert (The Joke, 1967).
       After graduating in 1952, the Film Faculty appointed him a lecturer in world literature. In 1956 Milan Kundera was readmitted into the Party. He was expelled for the second time in 1970. Kundera, along with other reform communist writers such as Pavel Kohout, were partly involved in the 1968 Prague Spring. This brief period of reformist activities was crushed by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
       Kundera remained committed to reforming Czech communism, and argued vehemently in print with fellow Czech writer Václav Havel, saying, essentially, that everyone should remain calm and that "nobody is being locked up for his opinions yet," and "the significance of the Prague Autumn may ultimately be greater than that of the Prague Spring." Finally, however, Kundera relinquished his reformist dreams and moved to France in 1975. He taught for a few years in the University of Rennes. He has been a French citizen since 1981.
  

Ivan approved Andrada’s request to combine 2 contributors, including Milan Kundera, Saturday, May 8, 2010.

Andrada submitted a request to combine 2 contributors, including Milan Kundera, Saturday, May 8, 2010.

Ivan approved SAM’s request to combine 6 contributors, including Milan Kundera, Friday, April 23, 2010.

SAM submitted a request to combine 6 contributors, including Milan Kundera, Friday, April 23, 2010.