INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCE RESEARCH
IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY

This paper examines the thematic interplay of power, individual freedom, and existential inquiry in the novels of Milan Kundera, focusing primarily on The Joke, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Through a close literary and philosophical analysis, the study explores how Kundera subverts authoritarian structures by highlighting the internal conflicts of his characters, who grapple with memory, desire, irony, and moral ambiguity. “Kundera’s narrative techniques-fragmentation, metafiction, and multiple perspectives-are shown to reinforce his critique of ideological absolutism and to foreground the complexity of human existence under oppressive regimes. Drawing upon existentialist and postmodern thought, the paper argues that Kundera’s work is not only a response to political totalitarianism, but also a profound meditation on the individual’s struggle for meaning, autonomy, and dignity in a world governed by uncertainty.