Milan Kundera's use of Kitsch
Kitsch is a German word that's been adopted by a number of other languages, including English. It refers primarily to art that is overly sentimental or melodramatic, and so refers to aesthetics. What's interesting is the way Kundera uses the concept in his novel, not to talk about art, but to talk about political ideology.
Source: https://www.shmoop.com/unbearable-lightness-of-being/kitsch-symbol.html
To begin, Kundera asserts that kitsch is an aesthetic ideal "in which shit
is denied and everyone acts as though it did not exist" (6.5.4). He's not
just speaking literally here, but about all the bad, disgusting, negative,
violent, depressing things in the world. "Kitsch excludes everything from
its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence" (6.5.5).
Kundera then moves on to politics. "Kitsch is the aesthetic ideal of all
politicians and all political parties and movements," he says (6.9.1). He
gives the example of politicians kissing babies as the ultimate kitschy
political move. When Sabina recalls the communist parades of her youth, she remembers
that the parades tricked the participants into celebrating Communism by
pretending they were celebrating life – a hokey, sentimental life embracing
only the positive (see Part 6, Chapter 7).
According to Unbearable Lightness, this is actually not so bad in
itself. The problem comes when you have to deal with totalitarian
kitsch. He explains this in detail, so we'll let him do the talking here:
Those of us who live in a society where various political tendencies exist
side by side and competing influences cancel or limit one another can manage
more or less to escape the kitsch inquisition: the individual can preserve his
individuality. The artist can create unusual works. But whenever a single
political movement corners power, we find ourselves in the realm of
totalitarian kitsch.
When I say "totalitarian," what I mean is that everything that
infringes on kitsch must be banished for life: every display of individualism
(because a deviation from the collective is a spit in the eye of the smiling
brotherhood); every doubt (be-cause anyone who starts doubting details will end
by doubting life itself); all irony (because in the realm of kitsch everything
must be taken quite seriously). (6.9.2-3)
Go back to Sabina's cryptic thought about 200 pages earlier, that "behind
Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic,
pervasive evil and that the image of that evil was a parade of people marching
by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unison" (3.5.8).
Now we know what that pervasive evil is: totalitarian kitsch.
So how does one fight kitsch? One answer has its roots in the original,
artistic definition of kitsch as sentimental or hokey art. From this
perspective, beauty is the enemy of kitsch. The other answer has its roots in
the political definition of kitsch as forced conformity. In this sense, someone
who insists on individuality is the enemy of kitsch. Sabina, who openly
proclaims "My enemy is kitsch!", manages to do both (6.11.6). Jump to
Sabina's "Character Analysis" to see how she pulls it off…
https://www.shmoop.com/unbearable-lightness-of-being/kitsch-symbol.html
The Religion of Communism Nikolai Berdyaev
Ignorance is Strength-Freedom is Slavery-War is Peace (George Orwell, 1984)
