Publisher's Synopsis
This is is the last authorized publication during the lifetime of Milan Kundera, a master of the generation of literature, featuring two of the author's earlier essays on ideas and culture that had a wide impact. Literature and the Small State is the transcript of Kundera's speech to the 1967 Czech Writers' Conference. Kundera looks at the tragic fate of the Czech nation and explores what it means to hold on to the cultural identity of a small nation. The Tragedy of a Hijacked West or Central Europe was originally published in 1983. In this essay, Kundera continues to explore the importance of the cultures of small nations and the potential catastrophe of their demise. He warns that Europe is losing its own sense of cultural identity and that the real tragedy will be the loss of Europe's cultural diversity.
