Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Kundera, a European Novelist

Chapter Two

The Legacy of Cervantes

Chapter Three

Falling Out of History

Chapter Four

Unmasking, Thought, and Analysis in the Post-Proustian Novel

Chapter Five

The Thematic Structure of Kundera’s Novels

Chapter Six

The Sentimental and the Authentic Self

Chapter Seven

The Dangers of Forgetting and Laughter

Chapter Eight

Hedonism, Aestheticism, and Love as Modes of Authentic Sense Giving

Chapter Nine

Lightness and Death

Chapter Ten

The End of Modernity, the End of the Novel?

Works Cited

Index