ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 theorizes Milan Kundera’s essays as a transformative type of writing. Although the genre of these texts is discursive rather than literary, Kundera tackles his topics in a very creative way, by probing, comparing, and experimenting with different ideas, not in declamations and emphatic argumentation. The investigative spirit of his essays, their polyphonic structure, and the fact that they impart their conclusions indirectly through allusion and contrast encourage readers to actively engage with them. This engagement is further bolstered by the rhetorical devices like abrupt shifts in the argument and inconsistencies in exposition that leave the supposed message of the essay vague, or at least open to interpretation. Kundera’s essays are transformative tools that can change us by inviting us to doubt, question, explore, and speculate, both along with the author and against him.
