Meditating In Fiction, Being In Meditation

The 20^th century was an era in which traditional fiction had been overthrown and innovative writers continuously broke through old forms, making fiction an artistic expression of possibility. Among them, Milan Kundera developed a school of his own due to the keen philosophic thoughts. For his masterpiece The Unbearable Lightness of Being, his philosophy has been widely recognized, moreover he has been regarded as one of the greatest contemporary living writers in the world. This paper focuses on his masterpiece, from the content to the structure, analyzing the characteristics of Kundera's fiction and his academic contribution to fiction's development in a systematic way. The first chapter states three fiction classes defined by Kundera, generalizes the uniqueness of his fiction and exposes the significance of "being" in his writing motive. Then the second chapter expatiates how "being" is combined with plots and characters-use of key words. By the answers to these key words, "being" has been embodied in his fiction. Kundera makes philosophy go with fiction's content, creating the concept of "meditative fiction"; on the other hand, he uses re-narration and polyphony to construct his fictions. In the third chapter, Kundera's attempt to polyphonic theory and the concept of the "integrative essay" have been discussed.