Humor View Research In Milan Kundera’s Fiction Theory

French novelist Milan Kundera won a very important position in the 20th century for his great novel creation and theoretical research which, especially his humor view, had always been the focus of heated debate. With existentialism as the philosophical foundation, Kundera expressed his important subjects of survival by the form of humor. Beyond the rhetorical sense of humor, his view of humor represented a kind of aesthetic spirit, as well as a kind of cognition and understanding of the meanings of life, of which, the best practices were his works. In a humorous way, Kundera exposed the situation of human existence and demonstrated the world’s absurdity, as well as guided readers to realize the meaning and value of existence from the survival tragedy and then gave them courage and motivation for the future.This paper is divided into five parts, seeking to analyze and grasp Kundera’s humor view more comprehensively and systematically from the theoretical source, the writing practice, the philosophical foundation, and the comparison with correlated theory.The preface is primarily Milan Kundera’s personal profile. Relevant domestic and foreign scholars’ research status of Kundera will be introduced in this part, combined with a sorting-out and analysis over research papers at home and abroad. Furthermore, the theoretical and practical significance of this paper will be also expounded by revealing the failings of these researches.The first chapter consists of two parts, introducing the fiction theory of Kundera and analyzing the status of humor in his works. The first part is about Kundera’s definition of fiction, which mainly related to his views onthe form and the purpose of fiction. The second part focuses on Kundera’s unique view of humor fiction. He cut into the theme of fiction and explored the possibilities of human existence by means of humor. The combination of humor and fiction formed his way to explore the being. It can be proved that the humor view played an important role in Kundera’s fiction theory.The second chapter is divided into three parts, in which the formation cause and background of Kundera’s humor view will be systematically analyzed. The first part introduces Kundera’s humor view, which was influenced by European tradition of humor fiction, inherited and carried forward the traditional humor. The second part covers that Kundera’s humor view was inseparable from the humor tradition of Czech nation, which provided basis for his political humor. The third part is about Kundera’s rough personal experience. The formation of his unique humor view was the combined action of society, nationand ages.Emphatically introducing the connotation of Kundera’s humor view, the third chapter, falling into two parts, is the core of this paper. The first part combs the three levels of humor which entered the realm of literature and art from the field of physiology and eventually moved to the aesthetic category. The second part introduces Kundera’s own understanding and perception of humor, that is, Kundera’s humor view. The third part illustrates that the use of humor in Kundera’s works demonstrates the mirror-image relation between his humor view and fiction writing by examples. The last part lists and analyzes the misunderstanding of Kundera’s humor view at home and abroad, grasping the connotation of it from the side and multiple angles.The fourth chapter is carried out in two parts, which introduces the philosophical foundation of Kundera’s humor view. The viewpoints of ontology proposed by Heidegger, Sartre and Jaspers are enumerated in the first part, accompanying with which, Kundera’s approval of their views are also pointed out. The other part argues that the philosophical foundation of Kundera’s humor view is existentialism.The fifth chapter gives an introduction of the difference and connection between Kundera’s humor view and Bakhtin’s theory of folk humor culture. Firstly, the spiritual kernels of the two come down in one continuous line. Secondly, theirexpression styles also have a high degree of similarity. The understanding of Kundera’s humor view will be further deepened in the analysis of the two theories.The conclusion drawn from this paper is that Milan Kundera’s humor view occupied an important position in his theoretical research of fiction. Kundera combined humor with fiction, elaborating the heavy survival theme with an easy and humorous technique. He led the readers to discover the possibilities of existence through wise laughter and to understand the meaning and value of life. The humor view he created which focused on life and explored the being, as well as the practice of fiction writing echoing with it. has enlightening significance for our theoretical studies of literature and art, and for the fiction research as well.