Editing Milan Kundera (section)

==Early life and education==
Milan Kundera was born on 1 April 1929 at Purkyňova 6 (6 [[Jan Evangelista Purkyně|Purkyně]] Street) in [[Královo Pole]], a district of [[Brno]], [[Czechoslovakia]] (present-day Czech Republic), to a middle-class family. His father, [[Ludvík Kundera (musicologist)|Ludvík Kundera]] (1891–1971), was an important Czech [[musicologist]] and pianist who served as the head of the [[Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts|Janáček Music Academy]] in Brno from 1948 to 1961.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mareček |first1=Luboš |title=Legacy of Leoš Janáček |url=https://en.jamu.cz/leos-janacek/ |website=JAMU |access-date=13 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Webb |first1=Kate |date=12 July 2023 |title=Milan Kundera obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/12/milan-kundera-obituary |access-date=13 July 2023 |work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref name="Darlingberg-2023" /> His mother Milada Kunderová (born Janošíková)<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kunderová |first1=Milada |title=Milada Kunderová |url=https://encyklopedie.brna.cz/home-mmb/?acc=profil_osobnosti&load=25000 |website=Encyklopedie dějin města Brna |access-date=13 July 2023}}</ref> was an educator.<ref name="Darlingberg-2023" /> His father died in 1971, and his mother in 1975.<ref name="Darlingberg-2023" />

Kundera learned to play the piano from his father and later studied [[musicology]] and musical composition. Musicological influences, references and [[musical notation|notation]] can be found throughout his work. Kundera was a cousin of Czech writer and translator [[Ludvík Kundera]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Ludvík Kundera |url=https://en.jamu.cz/artistic-and-research-activities/honorary-doctors-of-jamu/ludvik-kundera/ |website=JAMU |access-date=13 July 2023}}</ref> In his youth, having been supported by his father in his musical education, he was testing his abilities as a composer.<ref name="Boyer-Weinmann-2023">{{Cite news |last=Boyer-Weinmann |first=Martine |date=2023-07-12 |title=Milan Kundera, existential novelist, has died |language=en |work=Le Monde |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/obituaries/article/2023/07/12/milan-kundera-existential-novelist-has-died_6050427_15.html |access-date=2023-07-14}}</ref><ref name="amoureux" /> One of his teachers at the time was [[Pavel Haas]].<ref name="Ivry-2023">{{Cite web |last=Ivry |first=Benjamin |date=2023-07-13 |title=How Milan Kundera embodied the Jewish spirit |url=https://forward.com/culture/554141/how-milan-kundera-embodied-jewish-spirit-remembrance-appreciation/ |access-date=2023-07-15 |website=[[The Forward]] |language=en}}</ref> His approach to music was eventually dampened due to his father not being able to launch a piano career for insisting on playing the music of modernist Jewish composer [[Arnold Schoenberg]].<ref name="amoureux" />

At the age of eighteen, he joined the [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]] in 1947.<ref>Sanders, Ivan (1991). p. 103</ref> In 1984, he recalled that "Communism captivated me as much as [[Stravinsky]], [[Picasso]] and [[Surrealism]]."<ref name="Duffield-2023">{{cite web |last=Duffield |first=Charlie |title=What did Milan Kundera write? Author dies aged 94 |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/what-did-milan-kundera-write-author-dies-b1093891.html |access-date=13 July 2023 |website=[[Evening Standard]]|date=12 July 2023 }}</ref>

He attended lectures on music and composition at the [[Charles University]] in Prague but soon moved to the [[Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague]] (FAMU) to study film.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rüdenauer |first=Ulrich |date=12 July 2023 |title=Vom Lachen und Vergessen |url=https://www.zeit.de/kultur/literatur/2023-07/milan-kundera-schriftsteller-nachruf |access-date=2023-07-16 |website=[[Die Zeit]]}}</ref> In 1950, he was expelled from the party.<ref name="Boyer-Weinmann-2023" /> After graduating, the Film Faculty appointed Kundera a lecturer in world literature in 1952.<ref name="gale">{{cite web |last1=Culík |first1=Jan |title=Milan Kundera (1929-) |url=https://www.gale.com/intl/databases-explored/literature/milan-kundera |website=Gale |access-date=13 July 2023}}</ref> Following the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]] in 1968, he lost his job at the Film Faculty.<ref name="Kimball-1986">{{Cite journal |last=Kimball |first=Roger |year=1986 |title=Milan Kundera |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45266182 |journal=The Wilson Quarterly |publisher=[[The New Criterion]] |volume=10 |issue=3 |page=34 |jstor=45266182 |issn=0363-3276 }}</ref>
In 1956, Kundera also married for the first time, the operetta singer Olga Haas, the daughter of the composer and his teacher Pavel Haas and the doctor of Russian origin Sonia Jakobson, the first wife of [[Roman Jakobson]].<ref>{{cite magazine
| author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> 
| title = Milan Kundera
| periodical = Encyclopedia of the City of Brno
| publisher = Brno
| url = https://encyklopedie.brna.cz/home-mmb/?acc=profil_osobnosti&load=2196
| access-date = 2024-01-05
}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine
| title = Olga Haasová-Smrčková, niece of Hugo Haas and first wife of Milan Kundera, has died
| periodical = IDNES.cz
| url = https://www.idnes.cz/kultura/divadlo/olga-haasova-smrckova-smrt-zemrela.A221213_091550_divadlo_ts
| date = 2022-12-13
| language = cs
| access-date = 2024-01-05
}}</ref>