The Unbearable Lightness of Being Allusions & Cultural References

Literary and Philosophical References

• Friedrich Nietzsche (1.1.1, 1.2.1, 7.2.13-15)
• Parmenides (1.2.7-9, 1.14.7, 1.16.1, 5.8.4-5, 6.24.4)
• Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1.4.2, 1.11.5, 2.11.3, 2.12.4, 1.27.8, 4.25.4, 5.13.22), "Karenin" (Tereza's dog is named after a character in Anna Karenina)
• Henry Fielding (2.8.4)
• Thomas Mann (2.8.4)
• Socrates (3.5.19)
• Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (3.5.19)
• Stendhal (3.6.6)
• Franz Kafka (3.7.27)
• André; Breton (3.7.29)
• Sophocles, The Oedipus Trilogy (4.16.8, 4.24.10, 4.26.2, 5.1.2-3, 5.2.8-9, 5.3.2, 5.14.1, 5.14.6, 5.14.10-13, 6.24.3)
• Maxim Gorky (4.25.4)
• Alexander Pushkin (4.25.4)
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (5.9.6)
• Voltaire (5.13.22)
• Honoré; de Balzac (5.13.22)
• Jules Verne, Two Years On Holiday (5.17.1)
• Plato, The Symposium (5.23.5-6)
• René Descartes (7.2.6, 7.2.12-14)

Religious References

• Jesus Christ (1.2.1, 6.24.4)
• Moses (1.4.11, 5.14.13)
• St. Francis of Assisi (2.9.7)
• The Old Testament (6.3.1, 7.4.2)
• Valentinus (6.3.3, 6.4.2)
• Saint Jerome (6.4.1)
• story of Adam and Eve (6.4.1, 7.4.4)
• Johannes Scotus Erigena (6.4.1)
• Genesis (6.5.2, 7.2.1-2, 7.2.6)
• Simon (6.23.6)
• The Bible (6.24.4)

Mythological References

• Oedipus (1.4.11; see references to Sophocles' trilogy as well)
• Tristan (1.10.9, 3.10.16))
• Hercules (3.7.8, 3.7.16, 3.8.13, 3.9.18)
• Romulus (5.14.13)
• Narcissus (7.4.5)

Historical References

• Maximilien Robespierre (1.1.5)
• Adolf Hitler (1.17-8, 5.9.6, 5.15.18)
• Alexander Dubeck (1.12.8-10, 2.26.1-4, 2.27.3, 2.27.8, 5.2.14)
• Sigmund Freud (2.16.3)
• Antonín Novotny (3.4.5-6)
• Jan Hus (3.4.9)
• Joseph Stalin (3.5.24, 4.25.4, 5.14.10, 6.1.1)
• Don Juan (3.10.16)
• President John F. Kennedy (4.7.3, 4.24.3)
• Vladimir Lenin (4.25.4)
• Alexander Suvorov (4.25.4)
• Albert Einstein (5.9.6)
• Leonid Brezhnev (5.9.6)
• Yakov Dzhugashvili (6.1.1, 6.22.3-5)
• Jimmy Carter (6.15.4-5)

Music, Film, and Art References

• Beethoven (1.15.8-12, 1.16.1-3, 1.17.4, 2.9.5-6, 2.11.1-5, 5.8.1-4, 6.29.5)
• Beethoven, "Es muss sein!" is a line from Beethoven's String Quarter No. 16
• Beethoven, Ninth Symphony (3.3.18)
• Raphael (2.4.3)
• Béla Bartók, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (3.3.18)
• The Beatles, White Album (3.3.18)
• Antonín Dvořák (3.4.8)
• Leoš Janáček (3.4.8)
• Gioachino Rossini (3.6.15, 3.6.18)
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (4.25.4)
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (4.25.4)
• Federico Fellini (5.10.6)