Milan Kundera

 

Czech Writer Gets Jerusalem Literary Prize | AP News

Czech Writer Gets Jerusalem Literary Prize

May 10, 1985

JERUSALEM (AP) _ Exiled Czechoslovakian novelist Milan Kundera, whose books were banned in his homeland, has been awarded the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of Man in Society by Mayor Teddy Kollek.

The $5,000 prize was presented to Kundera on Wednesday night in conjunction with Israel’s annual book fair.

The three-member judging panel said Kundera had ″given expression to the struggle of the individual for his freedom and uniqueness against the forces of history, regime and politics.″

Kundera, 56, has been living in Paris and lecturing at French universities since 1975. The Czechoslovakian government abrogated his citizenship in 1979.

He was expelled from the Communist Party in 1969 for what the authorities called ″ideological deviations″ and his books were banned.

The panel said Kundera’s ″exile and his neutrality from defined political identification enable him to observe both the power of totalitarian regime and the power of Western excess consumption.″

Kundera has written poetry, short stories and a play. His latest novels include, ″The Book of Laughter and Forgetting,″ ″The Farewell Party″ and ″The Unbearable Lightness of Being.″

The Jerusalem Prize, given every two years, has been awarded previously to 11 riters, including Graham Greene, Bertrand Russell, Simone de Beauvoir and Eugene Ionesco.