YEARNING AND RESISTANCE
In his life’s work, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Be- ing’ Milan Kundera presents Prague as a city of artists and romantics that resounds with paranoia, the repres- sion of the communist regime and existential crisis. His work is not a love letter to Prague, but a yearning for it; a yearning for freedom and a call for resistance. And that longing remained until the end, even when Kun- dera went to France. This great critic and esthetician re- alised that modern man has no influence on historical events, rather only remains to sustain himself in the ex- isting system, although it offers no content. Nonesense, it could be said, is the basic message. Prague remained indebted to Kundera, with at least one museum. However, all the kinds of problems that artists encountered during the Soviet occupation can be seen at the Museum of Communism. Other histor- ical events weren’t easy on the golden Prague either, though its scars cannot be seen. The Second World War, the communist construction, whose consequences are seen in neighbouring Bucharest, Warsaw, Berlin and its division, in Prague are simply not there. For this reason, wrote Kundera in Unbearable Lightness, Praguers always felt somehow inferior. As he explained, the Old Town Hall was the only monument destroyed in the war and they decided to leave it in ruins so that neither the Poles nor the German could say that it was easier for the Czechs. The city hall is no longer a ruin, and the Old Town is so beautiful today that a picture for a postcard can be tak- en literally from every angle. Kundera wrote abut how people across Czecho- slovakia removed street names and destroyed signs in order to confuse their occupiers. And that blend of de- fiance, creativity, pacifism, even a hint of peculiarity, is also typically Czech. Despite the fact that these times have passed, Prague still defies the maps. Prague is the place for the most beautiful experience of being lost. Andfinally,wroteKunderadescribingTereza,themain heroine of his famous work, as she climbs Petřín Hill to the tower:“As she ascended, she paused several times to look back: below her she saw the towers and bridges, the saints were shaking their fists and lifting their stone eyes to the clouds. It was the most beautiful city in the world.”
Još jedan spomenik Francu Kafki u Pragu
Another Franz Kafka monument in Prague
ČEŽNJA I OTPOR
Zbog toga su se, pisao je Kunde- ra u Nepodnošljivoj lakoći posto- janja , Pražani uvek osećali nekako inferiorno. Kako je objasnio, Stara gradska većnica bila je jedini spo- menik uništen u ratu i odlučili su da ga ostave u ruševinama kako nijedan Poljak ili Nemac ne bi mo- gao da kaže da je Česima bilo lak- še. Gradska većnica više nije rui- na, a Stari grad je danas toliko lep da bukvalno iz svakog ugla može da se slika za razglednicu. Kundera je pisao i kako su ljudi širom Čehoslovačke skidali imena ulica i rušili znakove kako bi zbu- nili svoje okupatore. I ta mešavi- na prkosa, kreativnosti, pacifizma, čak i nagoveštaj neobičnosti, tako- đe je tako tipično češka. Bez obzi- ra na to što su ta vremena prošla, Prag i danas prkosi mapama. Prag je mesto za najlepšu izgubljenost. Na kraju, pisao je Kundera opisujući Terezu, glavnu junaki- nju svog čuvenog dela, kako se penje na Petrino brdo do tornja: „Dok se pela gore, nekoliko puta je zastala da pogleda unazad: iza sebe ona je videla kule i mostove, svece kako stiskaju pesnice i di- žu svoje kamene oči ka oblacima. Bio je to najlepši grad na svetu.“
Bio je to najlepši grad na svetu, pisao je Kundera o svom Pragu It was the most beautiful city in the world, wrote Kundera about his Prague
U svom životnom delu Nepod- nošljiva lakoća postojanja Milan Kundera predstavlja Prag kao grad umetnika i romantika koji izjeda- ju paranoja, represija komunistič- kog režima i egzistencijalna kriza. Njegovo delo nije ljubavno pismo Pragu, ali je čežnja za njim. Čežnja za slobodom i poziv na otpor. I ta čežnja ostala je do kraja, i kada je Kundera otišao u Francusku. Ovaj veliki kritičar i estetičar shvatio je da savremeni čovek nema uticaja na istorijska zbivanja, već da mu ostaje samo da se održi u posto- jećem sistemu, iako ovaj ne nudi nikakve sadržine. Besmisao, reklo bi se, jeste osnovna poruka. Kunderi je Prag ostao dužan, makar jedan muzej, međutim, u Muzeju komunizma može da se vidi sa kakvim su se sve problemi- ma umetnici nosili u periodu so- vjetske okupacije. Ni drugi istorij- ski događaji nisu bili blagonakloni prema zlatnom Pragu, ali na nje- mu se ožiljci ne vide. Drugi svetski rat, komunistička izgradnja, čije se posledice vide u susednom Buku- reštu, Varšavi, Berlinu i njegovoj podeli, u Pragu ih prosto nema.
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