| Best known for his 1984 novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which won him international acclaim and has since been translated (from his native Czech) into fifteen languages, Milan Kundera is often cited for the non-traditional narrative forms he employs and his fiction’s philosophical investigations into the human character’s public and private histories. He comes back with his new novel, Identity. Identity is Milan Kundera’s book which is published in 1998. Identity is a wonderful novel, it has a great story content. It is also a good literary work. It reflects mysteries how modern life influences a lovers’ relationship. Besides talking about the aspects of modernity, it also talks about the impacts of each aspect. According to Hooker (1996), modernity is simply the sense or the idea that the present is discontinuous with the past through a process of social and cultural change (either through improvement, that is, progress, or through decline) life in the present is fundamentally different from life in the past. This modernity is shown by Jean Marc and Chantal. Both Chantal and Jean Marc have passed through the modern lifestyle that affects their relationship. In Identity, Kundera courageously invites his readers to weigh the notion of human identity and what it means both in a community and in one-on-one romantic relationship. This novel portrays one couple, Chantal, who has recently divorced her husband after the death of her five year-old child, and Jean-Marc, her new lover. |