IDENTITY AND IDENTITY-NEGATION IN MILAN KUNDERA’S IDENTITY

The purpose of the present research is to display Milan Kundera’s literary techniques in showing the lethal power of silence. Identity is not to be restrained to psychology as it is a subject of study in sociology, too; therefore, the present paper tries to explore the sociological aspects of identity, embedded in Kundera’s novel of the same title, Identity. Silence, as well as dialogue, can affect someone’s identity; it may have different consequences, including some positive and some negative ones. The positive consequences of silence which are considered in this novel are taking shelter to silence, avoiding hysterical talkativeness, and making a dialogical self inside oneself. However; despite the positive, but sometimes temporary consequences of silence, there are negative and permanent consequences which include misunderstanding, unfairly judging the other, losing love, monologism, losing memory and consciousness, and all these together negate someone’s identity and bring about abnormality and mental disorder. On a larger scale, the paper reveals that power in silence may bolster authority and may lead to someone’s negation of identity under authority; hence, the consequences of silence are prone to be more destructive than constructive.