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The Presence of Anxiety: The Intertextual Dialogue of Gao Xingjian’s One Man’s Bible and Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being

  • The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China
  • Abbr : JSLCKC
  • 2013, (31), pp.475-495
  • DOI : 10.16874/jslckc.2013..31.020
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Study on Chinese Languge and Culture
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature
  • Published : February 28, 2013

KIM YEONGMYEONG 1

1한국외국어대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the meaning of life and existence by analyzing the dialogue in Gao Xingjian’s One Man’s Bible and Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Roland Barthes deems that every text holds intertextualness in various forms with different presentations. Eliot comments that the literature writers should observe literature in historical contexts of which in order to get more inspirations. Gao and Kundera convey existentialism in a multidimensional space. However, the themes expressed in Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being are less transparent and meaningful than Gao’s One Man’s Bible. The Unbearable Lightness of Being encompasses the life of a few individual characters and introduces philosophical thoughts through their choices of life. For example, the reminiscence of the past, custom rituals, oblivion and the co-incidenceness of time are analyzed. However, Gao’s One Man’s Bible depicts the turmoil in Cultural Revolution, which has been experienced by different parties, but not a single individual. Although both Gao and Kundera have inherited the core philosophies of Sartre’s existentialism, Gao opposes to the social functions of literature. For Kundera, he tends to achieve self-actualization through the literature and investigate the meaning of life.

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