Goethe in life and death in the novel by Milan Kundera “Immortality”: the representation’s structure and functions

The article aims to study the structure and functions of the representation of Goethe in Milan Kundera’s novel “Immortality” (1990) and to consider how they determine the motives and plot organization of the novel. It is argued that Goethe is represented in the novel in four “dimensions”. Firstly, as a poet, in particular, the author of the poem “Über allen Gipfeln”, which is not only quoted, but also analyzed in “Immortality”. Secondly, as the author of “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, which is described as a novel that embodies the “European concept of love” and ideally expresses, if not creates, homo sentimentalis - a special type of personality, fundamental to European culture. Goethe turns out to be one of the main creators of the European spirit and Europe itself, reflections on which constitute an important semantic layer of Kundera’s novel. Thirdly, since “Immortality” is characterized by several narrative plans and levels, Goethe is depicted as one of the characters, and his relationship with Bettina Brentano forms one of the plot lines, which is in many ways “parallel” to the plot lines of the conventional present in the novel. Fourthly, since one of the narrative levels constitutes the “afterlife” plan, Goethe also appears in it, conducting conversations with E. Hemingway in the tradition of “dialogues of the dead”. The figure of Goethe appears as a kind of “keystone” of the novel, uniting all its levels; through him and parallels with him the main problems of this work by Kundera are resolved: individuality (face) and inevitable “typicality”, God and his absence, spying and “eternal judgment”, hypertrophy of the “I” and homo sentimentalis, European civilization and erotic ambiguity, the dial of life and the ability to “be dead” - and others, including the one reflected in the title.