ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the themes of time and memory in Milan Kundera’s novel The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. By adopting senses as a queer mode of reading, the chapter illuminates how Kundera challenges normative notions of national time and history by foregrounding the pivotal role of sensory experience, aesthetics, and personal memory in his characters’ lives. The chapter emphasizes Kundera’s nuanced portrayal of the complexities and challenges inherent in diasporic memory, particularly poignant for those subjects emotionally attached to their native country despite physical separation. Expanding on this, the author formulates the concept of Kundera’s novel form as a queer genre. This genre not only defies conventional literary categorization but also nurtures a dynamic relationship between fiction, authorship, and history. Framing Kundera’s novel as a queer genre intervenes in the debates on queer historicism and empathetic knowledge production, allowing us to sense the queerness hidden deep in Kundera’s literary prowess.
