The Indifference of the Other A reading of the experience of insignificance and worthlessness in the work of Milan Kundera

Abstract

This presentation aims to address the experience of insignificance in individuals through the indifference that others show toward their actions. We will start from situations where it is narrated how some characters in Milan Kundera’s novels The Immortality and The Festival of Insignificance understand themselves as significant or insignificant based on the attention received from others. To analyze this issue, we will proceed in an existential phenomenological manner, meaning that we will describe the behaviors and experiences that make up the situations in question. Moreover, we will try to understand the meanings and concepts associated with insignificance in Kundera’s work to identify the impact of other subjects on our identity, as well as the ways and criteria by which we value our actions and creations. In this way, we will propose a reading of insignificance in contrast to immortality and public relevance. We will conclude that not only our identity, values, tastes, and actions are shaped by frameworks of meaning within specific social groups, but our public works and actions also stem from the intention to be heard, seen, and commented upon. Insignificance is experienced when the individual’s need to be the object of attention is frustrated by the indifference of others.