This work discusses the portrayal of Czech émigré experience in novels written by Czech author Milan Kundera. By analyzing four Kundera's novels and placing them within a broader historico-cultural context, I arrive at a conclusion that Kundera's depiction of emigration differs significantly from that of the majority of Czech émigré authors who depict emigration as a positive and painless experience in order to justify their own decision to leave Czechoslovakia. Kundera, on the other hand, sheds light onto the complexity of the émigré experience. He focuses on cultural and linguistic dislocation, differences between the West and the East-Central Europe, unbridgeable gap between an émigré and a non-émigré, alienation and disillusionment that returning émigrés had to deal with, and the role of memory in emigration.
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