Class Year
2021
Document Type
Student Research Paper
Date of Creation
Spring 2021
Department 1
Globalization Studies
Abstract
Two of the many watershed events Czechoslovakia experienced in the twentieth century were the 1968 Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion, which determined the course of the nation for the next twenty years. Czech author Milan Kundera experienced these events firsthand and recounted a narrative of the events in his 1984 novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Today, the novel remains an important work for its representation of the Spring and its philosophical discussion of the purpose of human life. Over the last fifty years, the Prague Spring has been represented by a variety of sources as a time of hopes raised and dashed, as a success and a failure, as a point of pride and shame. Its representation varies based on the political context of the day, though the idea of truth remains an important theme in the Spring's evaluation. The Spring's and the Invasion's inherent juxtapositions remain critical for a consideration of the nature of politics and destiny.
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution
Recommended Citation
Toocheck, Thea J., "The Weight of the Spring: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and the Fate of the Prague Spring" (2021). Student Publications. 938.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/938
Included in
European History Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Modern Literature Commons
Comments
Written for Globalization Studies Capstone project