The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

by

Milan Kundera

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The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Part 6, Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
When Sabina thinks of Soviet kitsch becoming reality, it sends a shiver down her spine. She feels much like Tereza felt during her reoccurring dream of being marched naked around the pool. Sabina and Tereza’s fear is the point of kitsch: it is “a folding screen set up to curtain off death.”
Kundera’s language here that communism is a “folding screen” connotes images of the Iron Curtain, which separated those in Communist countries from the capitalist West during the Cold War. Unlike Tereza and Tomas, Sabina did not return to Prague and managed to escape communism, and so Soviet kitsch is not her reality anymore.  
Themes
Power, Politics, and Inequality Theme Icon