2024-08-06 14:22:41
In September, the Milan Kundera Library in Brno will twice commemorate the famous writer after whom it is named. An early evening dedicated to his novel Identity, which was recently published in Czech for the first time, will take place on September 9. Two weeks later, the French writer Florence Noiville will come to Brno to christen the Czech translation of her Kunderov biography.
Milan Kundera’s library opened last year on April 1 thanks to the writer’s gift and the transport of his books, correspondence and other documents from Paris. The Brno native and exile died there last year at the age of 94. Institutions under the Moravian Regional Library also try to remember him through similar debates.
On the second Monday of September, the Evening with the Identity of Milan Kundera will take place here. It is named after the novel, which was first published in French in 1998, but the Czech translation of Anna Karenina was published by the Atlantis publishing house only at the end of June. The afterword was written by literary scholar Jakub Česka.
Both Kareninová and Češka will be participants in the discussion on Milan Kundera on September 9, which is to be moderated by the director of the library, Tomáš Kubíček. “We should also have a greeting from Věra Kunderová,” mentions library spokesperson Anna Mrázová.
Two weeks later, the French writer Florence Noiville will come to Brno to christen the Czech edition of her book Milan Kundera – Psát, jak směšný ideb. Translated by Nora Obrtelová, it will be published by the Host publishing house.
Today sixty-three-year-old Florence Noiville met Kundera only in his mature age, when he had long avoided the media. Nevertheless, she started visiting him and his wife Věra Kunderová in Paris. They met at their homes, in cafes or at joint dinners. “She was in close contact with them,” adds the library spokesperson.
Florence Noiville visited Milan Kundera in the last years of his life. | Photo: Francesca Mantovani
In addition to Florence Noiville, translator Obrtelová will also attend the dinner planned for September 23 in Brno. Florence Noiville’s work on Kunder was published in French last June.
“It is not a scientific monograph, but rather a fictionalized personal report taking into account the fact that the author was friends with Kundera for many years and also visited him in the last months of his life,” Miroslav Balaštík, director of the Host publishing house, said some time ago.
According to him, the volume is accompanied by photographs from the writer’s apartment and places associated with it. In addition to short interviews with Kundera, the memories and comments of his wife Věra and several Czech friends, for example the composer Miloš Štědroná, are important in the publication. “Of the books published so far about Milan Kundera, I find this one the most literary and the most readable,” says Balaštík.
Journalist and writer Florence Noiville has been the editor of Le Monde since 1994 and the editor of its literary supplement. In addition, she has written several novels, children’s books, biographies and book essays. Her works have been translated into 13 languages.
Czech readers were able to get to know her four years ago, when the Odeon publishing house published her novella Confessions of a Kleptomaniac, translated by Tomáš Havel. “Revivalists who attached an educational and educational role to literature could dance. But the reader who expected fiction will be somewhat disappointed,” wrote the critic Aleš Palán about this prose.
Video: Kundera suffered because of the slander that he reported. He wasn’t wanted here (11/12/2021)
Milan Kundera never wanted to be a dissident, but he became an unwanted author, documentary filmmaker Miloslav Šmídmajer said three years ago on DVtv. | Video: DVTV, Daniela Drtinová