Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magical Realist Fiction | 1984 | Milan Kundera | Buy |
| 2 | Granta 6: A Literature for Politics | 1990 | Milan Kundera | Buy |
| 3 | Granta 13: After the Revolution | 1999 | Milan Kundera | Buy |
| 4 | PEN America Issue 4: Fact/Fiction | 2002 | Milan Kundera | Buy |
| 5 | Writers: Their Lives and Works | 2018 | Milan Kundera | Buy |
These anthologies represent Kundera’s presence in the broader literary conversation of the late twentieth century rather than original work authored by him. The 1984 Magical Realist Fiction anthology placed his work in the company of Borges, Kafka, and Calvino, reflecting the way English-language critics positioned him within a particular tradition of European and Latin American modernism – a categorization Kundera himself often resisted.
The two Granta issues – “A Literature for Politics” (1983) and “After the Revolution” (1984) – were among the most influential literary journals of their era, regularly featuring major international writers and helping to shape how literature from Eastern Europe was read in the West. Kundera’s appearance in both reflects his status as a central figure in the literature of dissent and exile during the Cold War.
The later entries, including PEN America (2002) and Writers: Their Lives and Works (2018), show his continued presence in literary culture in the decades after his major novels. For readers primarily interested in his fiction, these anthologies are context rather than essential reading, but they are useful for understanding how Kundera was received and positioned by publishers and critics.