The Joke

The Joke
Author	Milan Kundera
Country	Czechoslovakia
Language	Czech
Genre(s)	Satirical Novel
Publisher	Československý spisovatel
Publication date	1967
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	292 pp
ISBN	978-0-06-099505-8
OCLC	28124158

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The Joke (Czech: Žert) is Milan Kundera's first novel, originally published in 1967.

The novel takes place during the Czechoslavian transition into a Communist country.

The novel is composed of many jokes which hold strong effect on the characters. The story is told in the four viewpoints of Ludvik Jahn, Helena Zemanek, Kostka, and Jaroslav. Jaroslav's joke is the transition away from his coveted Moravian folk lifestyle and appreciation. Kostka, who has separated himself from the party due to his Christianity, serves as a counterpoint to Ludvik. Helena serves as Ludvik's victim and is satirical of the seriousness of party supporters. Ludvik demonstrates the shortcomings of the party and propels the plot in his search for revenge and redemption.

Written and set in 1965 Prague and first published in Czechoslovakia in 1967, the novel opens with Ludvik Jahn looking back on the joke that changed his life in the early 1950s. Ludvik was a dashing, witty, and popular student who supported the Party. Like most of his friends he was an enthusiastic supporter of the still-fresh Communist regime in post-World War II Czechoslovakia. In a playful mood he writes a postcard to one of the girls in his class during their summer break. Since she seems, according to Ludvik, to be a bit too serious he writes on the postcard "Optimism is the opium of the people! A healthy atmosphere stinks of stupidity! Long live Trotsky!" His colleagues and fellow young-party leaders did not quite see the humor in the sentiment expressed in the postcard. Ludvik finds himself expelled from the party and college and drafted to that part of the Czech military where alleged subversives form work brigades and spend the next few years working in mines.

Despite the interruption in his career Ludvik has become a successful scientist. But despite his success, his treatment at the hands of his former friends has left him bitter and angry. An opportunity arises when he meets Helena, who is married to Pavel Zemanek, the friend who led the efforts to purge Ludvik from the party. Ludvik decides to seduce Helena as a means of exacting his revenge. In essence this is the second `joke' of the novel. Although the seduction is successful things do not quite play out the way Ludvik expects, the novel's third joke' and he is left once more to sit and think bitter thoughts. Ultimately he decides that these sorts of jokes and their bitter repercussions are not the fault of the humans who set them in motion but are really just a matter of historic inevitability. Ultimately then one cannot blame forces that cannot be changed or altered.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

In 1968, The Joke was adapted into a film by Czech New Wave director Jaromil Jireš, but the film was almost immediately banned following the Soviet clampdown on the Prague Spring.

References in Music

The song "Same Bastards" by American indie band Shinobu is inspired by the Joke, making references to working in the mines after eviction from a university, Lucie and Ludvik.