Modern Odysseus: The Irony of Homecoming in Milan Kundera’s novel Ignorance

Abstract

This article explores the multifarious dimensions of the Homeric trope of homecoming as portrayed in Milan Kundera’s novel Ignorance (2002) and shows how this novel interrogates the idea of nostalgia associated with the Diasporic notion of homeland. Kundera’s text maps the journey of two emigrant characters, Irene and Josef, from their hostland Paris to their homeland Czech Republic, to which they are returning under compulsion. They discover new, annoying aspects of their homeland, which has ceased to be their “home.” Ignorance plays upon the irony of the Odyssean homecoming. The text probes the mythologizing of homeland and the delusion about one’s roots. The expected joy of homecoming is ironically replaced with disillusionment. It is a riveting modern-day reworking of the Odyssean theme of the classic “Great Return.” Home as a metaphor is related to questions of identity and accordingly this novel shows that Irene and Josef’s hostland is where they belong rather than their homeland. This article thus unravels and analyzes the nuanced dynamics of homecoming for modern expatriates in relation to the ancient Homeric paradigm.