A study in variations and shared existential mysteries involving the self in Milan Kundera's "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" and Ivo Andric's "The Bridge on the Drina".
Abstract A look at how two Slavic authors, Ivo Andric and Milan Kundera, explore the very personal mystery of self. This essay explores Kundera's "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" and Andric's "The Bridge on the Drina" comparing similarities of theme as the two authors in their diverse styles show humans seeking self in relationship to the opposite sex. The study offers extensive comparison/ contrast of the two novels utilizing many documented quotes from both.
From the Paper "The novels The Bridge on the Drina, by Ivo Andric and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, by Milan Kundera are examples of the truth of this statement. Both novelists explore the enigma of self within the context of their own existential probing of self. Each of these writers also places his personal self, as well as the selves of his characters against a panoramic historical background, which just happens to be the stage setting before which he has played out his own personal drama of self."
