The joke

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The joke (Czech: Žert ) is a novel by the Czech author Milan Kundera , which was first published in 1967 (German 1968). He tells the story of Ludvik, who fell out of favor with the communists as a student, had to work in a coal mine and was then rehabilitated. The historical background is the immediate post-war period after the Second World War , in which the Communist Party consolidated its power, up to the time before the Prague Spring .

content

Ludvik is a student and a communist activist. Because his girlfriend Markéta would rather go to a party training course than spend time with him, he wrote her the following postcard: “Optimism is the opium of humanity! A healthy mind stinks of stupidity! Long live Trotsky ! Ludvik. "

At the instigation of his friend Pavel, he was expelled from the party and expelled from the university. The military drafts him, but as a “Trotskyist” he is not entrusted with a weapon. He has to go to the “blacks” who, as opponents of the system or petty criminals, have to mine coal in underground mining. During his rare outdoor walks he gets to know the inconspicuous and uneducated Lucie; At first he perceives his relationship as “pure love”, later he desires it and tries to be raped.

Ludvik is released from the army or coal mine and rehabilitated. He becomes a mathematics professor and by chance meets the wife of his former friend Pavel, Helena. He seduces her to take revenge on Pavel. But the liberalization, which should soon lead to the Prague Spring, is already emerging. The opportunist Pavel has embraced the next generation's liberal sexual morality and is also on the verge of divorce; he perceives his wife's affair with his former boyfriend with amusement.

This story is interwoven with two subplots, one of which contains theoretically colored treatises on the folk music of Moravia , which is described as the jazz of Eastern Europe. The novel is also structured “musically” in that towards the end “the rhythm picks up” and the jumps to the subplots become more frequent and shorter and the story ends in a wild tumult.

literature

Movie

  • Jaromil Jireš : Žert. Tragicomedy . Barradov Biografia, Prague 1998 (VHS, 80 min.)