While we live with the sense that time is always new and things are changing rapidly, some aspects of the argument and truth are so persistent that some formulations may last more than half a century and remain valid for us. this is the case by definition milan kundera (Brno, Czechia, 1929) A establishes the first of two texts collected in the abducted West (Literature and small nations, conference read at the Czechoslovak Writers’ Congress in 1967) with the figure of the vandal: «They are all educated, they are happy with themselves. […]. Their proud narrow-mindedness believes they can make the world fit their image, and they can turn their homeland into a desert without history, memory, echoes, and devoid of all beauty. Kundera considers this proud provincialism to be the worst enemy of small cultures unrelated to powerful states whose reason for their existence at the cultural level (he speaks of righteousness) is to abandon folkloric corners and the rule of their own daily lives. and we offer valuable works to other countries.
The idea is interesting in a country like ours where at least four literatures act without a State. But if we add the notion that in a globalized world the dominant culture tends to swallow everything, even cultures like the Spaniards run the risk of becoming insignificant or Anglo-Saxon satellites if they are not warned against vandalism by their compatriots. And something of that risk comes up every time the movie billboards or the news and the cultural news of the press act like obedient echoes of another country’s industry, always dealing with stories that don’t belong to us.
Current events may distort readings of the second of the compiled texts, published as a journal article in 1983: The Kidnapped West. Kundera denounces the cultural neglect that would include countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, which he refers to as Central Europe. He assures that the rest of Europe condemns the absence of freedoms caused by the communist regime in these countries, but forgets that their cultural identity was also violated by the forced annexation to Russia: they are closer to rationalism and Catholicism than to sentimentality and orthodox religion.
A mental reflex suggests that this text is a warning against Russia’s imperialist impulses, but Kundera warns that we should not compare (yes, condemn) the situation in Ukraine and Belarus (politically thematic but belonging to the same cultural sphere) with Russia. That of Hungary and Poland. Over the years, these countries, freed from the Soviet yoke and integrated into the EU, have accelerated their approach to the deviations, extremism and intolerance that are contrary to the principles of enlightenment we usually associate with Europe. Political emancipation has not completely eliminated the monsters here.
Think tank, life teacher, comedic genius, it’s always a pleasure to meet or rediscover a text from Kundera. And this book is a happy reminder of how lucky we are to be our contemporary.