Having insisted throughout his life that he is not a political or dissident writer, it might seem odd to suggest that he might now be of some assistance with these matters.

Beginning in 1995, all his work has been written in French. Kundera has been a prominent author since the late 60s when he was forced to leave Czechoslovakia for France, which he has made his home for the past 40 years. This essay, in this way, argues that Kundera’s recent work sheds important light on the comedic potent of politics today, giving us a framework with which to approach our political moment. A combination of Czech and German, it asks: Is the Joke the thing-in-itself? Looking through the lens of Kundera – particularly his most recent work, The Festival of Insignificance (2015) – allows us to think further through these questions, and expertly pinpoints the crux of comedic politics.

It is about this to which the title of the essay suggests us to think. As this comedic turnabout continues, we are forced to reckon with the politics of humor in new ways, as we have begun addressing and reacting to the humor of politics. The line between a joke and a crime seems to be getting ever thinner. If the political has become more comic, the comic has taken on edges of the serious. How are we to react to all of this? When politicians speak, ought we to take them at face value? Do we do this with the knowledge that politicians are often not telling the truth? Importantly, what are we to do with the markedly absurd that has become more prominent in politics than ever before? Here one could think of such examples as Kellyanne Conway’s ‘alternative facts’ or Theresa May’s ad nauseam refrain, ‘Strong and Steady,’ in defending Brexit. Politics has become something comical, yet simultaneously deadly serious. Serious in both senses of the word – in that politics are important and impact our everyday lives and in that one simply ought not laugh at them. News no longer streams passively from one or other channel, but now comes hurtling at you via social media news feeds – much of which we should be suspicious as to its being “news.” Yet at the same time, it seems harder and harder to take politics entirely seriously. All around the world, something momentous seems to be happening each day – a situation certainly propelled forward by the now ubiquitous 24-hour news cycle. It would be hard to argue right now that contemporary politics are boring. Kundera, Jokes, and Politics: Ist de Žert das Ding an Sich?

The joke book by milan kundera