Introduction & Overview of The Hitchhiking Game by Milan Kundera

The Hitchhiking Game Introduction

"The Hitchhiking Game" was first published as part of a collection of Milan Kundera's stories entitled Laughable Loves. The story centers on a young couple on the first day of their vacation together. Driving along in the young man's sports car, they spontaneously engage in a "game" whereby the young woman takes on the pretend "role" of a seductive hitchhiker, and the young man takes on the role of the stranger who has picked her up along the side of the road. But the fantasy element of the "game" bleeds into the reality of the relationship, with dire emotional and psychological consequences for both parties.

"The Hitchhiking Game" picks up on a recurring theme in the work of Milan Kundera, which concerns the ways in which sexual relationships become power struggles between individuals in a political and social climate in which the individual has no power over a repressive...
(read more)