Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera
Kundera in 1980
Kundera in 1980
Born(1929-04-01)1 April 1929
Brno, Czechoslovakia
Died11 July 2023(2023-07-11) (aged 94)
Paris, France
OccupationNovelist
Language
  • French
  • Czech
Citizenship
Alma mater
Spouse
  • Olga Haasová-Smrčková
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1956, divorced)​
  • Věra Hrabánková
    ​
    (m. 1967)​
ParentLudvík Kundera (father)
RelativesLudvík Kundera (cousin)
Signature

Milan Kundera (UK: /ˈkʊndərə, ˈkʌn-/ KU(U)N-dər-ə;[1][2] Czech: [ˈmɪlan ˈkundɛra] ⓘ; 1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship in 2019.[3]

Kundera's best-known work is The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Before the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the country's ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia banned his books. He led a low-profile life and rarely spoke to the media.[4] He was thought to be a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature and was also a nominee for other awards.[5][6]

Kundera was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 1985, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1987, and the Herder Prize in 2000. In 2021, he received the Golden Order of Merit from the president of Slovenia, Borut Pahor.[7]

  1. ^ "Kundera". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  2. ^ "Kundera, Milan". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 13 November 2021.
  3. ^ "Milan Kundera má po 40 letech opět české občanství – Novinky.cz". novinky.cz. 3 December 2019. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  4. ^ "Kundera rejects Czech 'informer' tag". BBC News. 13 October 2008. Retrieved 13 October 2008. The Czech Republic's best-known author, Milan Kundera, has spoken to the media for the first time in 25 years ... .
  5. ^ Crown, Sarah (13 October 2005). "Nobel prize goes to Pinter". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  6. ^ "'Milan Kundera' coming to China". People's Daily. 25 June 2004. Retrieved 25 June 2004.
  7. ^ W3bStudio (13 November 2021). "Pahor presents Golden Order of Merit to author Milan Kundera". Slovenia Times. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)