Milan Kundera - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
"The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" consists of seven parts. Each part narrates the story of people who resist their own act of forgetting. Since each story is – just like a short story – complete in itself, the book was divided into seven individual booklets.
This novel revolves around the things that make us who we are – our memories and our past. It is also about the strange ease that comes as a result of losing these things. In the novel, Kundera raises many philosophical questions which provide an incentive to the reader to deal with his or her own oblivion.
The melancholic, pessimistic impression that the book awakens in the reader as well as the sober, constructed style of writing is expressed by the large, claustrophobic-looking type-area.
Contrasting with the heaviness of the typeface as well as the narrowness of the type-area, I chose a large size for the booklets and a rather thin paper. Although the novel is written in a very oppressive and pessimistic tone, there are also ironic hints and elements of magical realism to be found. The theme of forgetting is also something light, changeable and fragile. This feeling is made clear by the not sewn, but only loosely placed pages. The seven booklets come in a box made of lightweight cardboard with a screen-print on it.
The fantastic appearance of magical realism and the mutability of memory are reflected in the images on the covers of the seven booklets.
At first, I experimented a lot with photographs and negatives from my own family albums. Since the book deals with the relationship between identity and memory, it appeared logical to me to use pictures from my own past.
¬ Master Thesis, 2017
