Motif-Group Essay Questions

Below you'll find the essay prompts individual motif groups came up with in today's class. Feel free to borrow whole-cloth, elaborate on, tweak, or otherwise engage with these questions as you compose your own essay question for tonight's final paper prospectus.

Lightness Group:

--Can a motif be light? Be sure to supply Kundera's definition of "motif" and to track one motif associated with lightness.

--Compare and contrast the philosophies of lightness and weight in Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being and the film Up in the Air.

Weight:

--How does family fit into the lightness/weight dichotomy? Answer this question by considering family in the lives of multiple characters.

Body:

--Explore the relationship of the body to privacy.

...A variation of Marjorie E. Rhine's question, which is also a viable paper prompt: "What role does the body play in upholding a kind of sanctity of privacy?" (237)

Soul (in their words):

--In his search for "individuality" does Tomas attempt to separate body for soul or does he attempt to fuse the two? How does Tereza view "individuality"
--How do Tomas and Tereza distinguish between their private and public lives? How do they differ?
--Are dreams an extension of the soul or body. Use examples to justify your viewpoint. Explore the role of dreams according to the dichotomy of lightness and weight/body and soul.
--Role of mirrors. How do Tomas and Tereza view themselves. How do their views differ. How do they view themselves. How do they view their own souls.
How do mirrors reflect how the characters in the novel view their souls.

I encourage you to consider the metaliterary aspects of the novel, like the relationship of art and beauty to repetition; the different conceptions of art and beauty expressed by characters and the narrator in the book; the role of intertextuality and literary (or musical) allusions in the novel.

_The Unbearable Lightness of Being_Day Five: Lightness and Weight, Part 2

Post your discussion questions here.

_The Unbearable Lightness of Being_Day Four: Back to Soul and Body

Tereza's existential heading, "Body and Soul," returns with all its vertiginousness (a verifiable word) and weight. Please post your question on Book 4 here.

_The Unbearable Lightness of Being_Day Three: Words Misunderstood

Thanks for a terrific set of presentations and a super-engaged class discussion today. You blew me away along with the visitor! I hope you continue to find the book as intellectually stimulating during these final days of summer R&C.

For tonight, please post a question about "Words Misunderstood," Book 3, which divides its sympathies between Franz, Sabina and the narrator. And make sure to keep up your motif log for group discussion. Tomorrow we'll also have a long-awaited conversation about the motif as a feature of literature and other arts in general, and in Kundera's book in particular.

_The Unbearable Lightness of Being_Day Two: Soul and Body

In today's class, we explored the narrator's philosophical framing of the novel between Nietzsche, Parmenides, and Beethoven; chance, fate, and eternal recurrence; lightness and weight; emotional non-attachment and the ethical burden of the Other.

We also began to discuss eternal recurrence as a philosophical idea and as a structural principle of the novel...which brought us to the motif. Since tomorrow you'll be meeting for the first time in your motif groups, try creatively reappropriating tonight's blog entry to send messages to the other members of your "secret brotherhood" of the book (to borrow a turn-of-phrase from Kundera). Otherwise just use your question as usual.

Those of you who are doing a critical literature presentation or leading the class discussion are exempted from posting a regular discussion question tonight. If you can, please tell us what themes or passages to concentrate on for tomorrow's class conversation.

_The Unbearable Lightness of Being_

Milan Kundera's novel is self-consciously constructed according to the presence of motifs, so feel free to start tracking some of them in Book 1, as we will do in groups for the rest of the session. Otherwise post discussion questions as usual. This book is rich not just in motifs but in metaphors and literary allusions, as well as ideas about art, history, and life. Enjoy!