Franz Kafka

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Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka in 1906
Franz Kafka in 1906
Born(1883-07-03)3 July 1883
Prague, Austria-Hungary
Died3 June 1924(1924-06-03) (aged 40)
Kierling near Vienna, First Republic of Austria
OccupationInsurance officer, factory manager, novelist, short story writer
LanguageGerman
NationalityAustria-Hungary
GenreFiction, novel, short story
Literary movementModernism, Magic realism, Existentialism
Notable works"Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis"), Der Process (The Trial), Das Schloss (The Castle), Betrachtung (Contemplation), Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist)
Signature

Franz Kafka[a] (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was an influential German-language author of novels and short stories who is regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. The term "Kafkaesque" has entered the English language to describe surreal situations reminiscent of those in his writing.

Kafka was born into a middle-class, German-speaking, Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was educated as a lawyer. While working for an insurance company, he wrote many stories including "Das Urteil" ("The Judgment"), "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis") and "In der Strafkolonie" ("In the Penal Colony"), and he began the novels Der Process (The Trial), Das Schloss (The Castle) and Amerika (Amerika or Der Verschollene). His writing has been associated with existentialism, expressionism, socialism and Marxism, while influence of Judaism on his work has been interpreted in various ways. Kafka preferred communication by letter; he wrote hundreds of letters to family and close female friends, including his father (Brief an den Vater) (Letter to His Father), his fiancée Felice Bauer (Briefe an Felice) (Letters to Felice), and his youngest sister and the family (Briefe an Ottla und die Familie) (Letters to Ottla & the Family). Kafka had a complicated and troubled relationship with his father, which had a major impact on his writing. He was also conflicted over his Jewishness at times, feeling it had little to do with him, yet also heavily influencing his writing.

Only a small part of Kafka's work was published during his lifetime—the story collections Betrachtung (Contemplation) and Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor), and individual stories in literary magazines. He prepared the story collection Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist) for print, but it appeared after his death. The majority of his writing, including unfinished works such as all of his novels, was published posthumously, mostly by his friend Max Brod, who ignored his wish to destroy the manuscripts. His work influenced writers such as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, and inspired films, plays, music and computer games.

Life

Family

Kafka at the age of five

Kafka was born into a middle-class, German-speaking Ashkenazi Jewish family in Prague, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was born in a house on the Old Town Square next to the Church of St Nicholas. His father, Hermann Kafka (1852–1931), was described as a "huge, selfish, overbearing businessman"[1] and by Kafka himself as "a true Kafka in strength, health, appetite, loudness of voice, eloquence, self-satisfaction, worldly dominance, endurance, presence of mind, [and] knowledge of human nature".[2] Hermann was the fourth child of Jacob Kafka, a shochet or ritual slaughterer, and came to Prague from Osek, a Czech-speaking Jewish village near Písek in southern Bohemia. After working as a traveling sales representative, he established himself as an independent retailer of men's and women's fancy goods and accessories, employing up to 15 people and using a jackdaw (kavka in Czech) as his business logo.[3] Kafka's mother, Julie (1856–1934), was the daughter of Jakob Löwy, a prosperous brewer in Poděbrady, and was more highly educated than her husband.[4]

Kafka's sisters, from the left Elli, Valli, Ottla

Franz was the eldest of six children.[5] He had two younger brothers: Georg and Heinrich, who died at the ages of fifteen months and seven months, respectively, before Franz was seven; and three younger sisters, Gabriele ("Ellie") (1889–1944), Valerie ("Valli") (1890–1944) and Ottilie ("Ottla") (1892–1943). On business days, both parents were absent from the home. Franz's mother helped to manage her husband's business and worked up to 12 hours a day. Consequently, Kafka's childhood was somewhat lonely.[6] The children were largely reared by a series of governesses and servants. Kafka's relationship with his father was troubled, as described in the over 100-page long Brief an den Vater (Letter to His Father), which is more of a book, in which he complained of being profoundly affected by his father's authoritarian and demanding character,[7] which was in contrast to his mother's quiet and shy nature.[8] Kafka's father made the largest impression upon Kafka's childhood and had a large impact on his writing.[9] Kafka's native language was German and he attended German-language schools.[3] He was also fluent in Czech.[10][11] Kafka read a lot his whole life. As a child he showed little interest in exercise, however as he grew older he showed significant interest in games and physical exercise.[12]

Education

From 1889 to 1893, he attended the Deutsche Knabenschule, the boys' elementary school at the Masný trh/Fleischmarkt (meat market), the street now known as Masná street. His Jewish education ended with his Bar Mitzvah celebration at 13. He only went to the synagogue four times a year with his father, which he loathed.[2]

After elementary school, he was admitted to the rigorous classics-oriented state Gymnasium, Altstädter Deutsches Gymnasium, an academic secondary school with eight grade levels, where German was also the language of instruction, at Old Town Square, within the Kinsky Palace. He completed his Matura exams in 1901.[13][14]

Kafka as a student (before 1900)

Admitted to the German Karl-Ferdinands-Universität of Prague, Kafka first studied chemistry, but switched after two weeks to law.[15] Although Kafka was not particularly enthused about this field of study, it offered a range of career possibilities, which pleased his father, and required a longer course of study that gave Kafka time to take classes in German studies and art history.[16] At the university, he joined a student club, named Lese- und Redehalle der Deutschen Studenten, which organized literary events, readings and other activities. In the end of his first year of studies, he met Max Brod, who also studied law and would become a close friend for life.

Brod soon noticed that while Kafka was shy and talked seldom, that when he did say something it was usually profound.[17] Together they read Plato's Protagoras in the original Greek, on Brod's initiative, and Flaubert's L'éducation sentimentale (Sentimental Education) and La Temptation de St. Anthoine (The Temptation of Saint Anthony) in French, at Kafka's suggestion.[18] Kafka took an interest in Czech literature,[10][11] and was also very fond of the works by Goethe.[19]

Kafka's circle of friends included the journalist Felix Weltsch, who studied philosophy, the writers Oskar Baum und Franz Werfel, and the actor Yitzchak Lowy who came from an orthodox Hasidic Warsaw family.[20] Kafka obtained the degree of Doctor of Law on 18 July 1906[b] and performed an obligatory year of unpaid service as law clerk for the Civil and criminal courts.[23][22]

Employment

Kinsky Palace where Kafka attended Gymnasium and his father owned a shop

On 1 November 1907, he was hired at the Assicurazioni Generali, an Italian insurance company, where he worked for nearly a year. His correspondence during that period indicates that he was unhappy with his working time schedule—from 08:00 until 18:00[24][25]—as it made it extremely difficult for him to concentrate on his writing. On 15 July 1908, he resigned, and two weeks later found more congenial employment with the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. The job involved investigating personal injury to industrial workers, such as lost fingers or limbs, and assessing compensation. Industrial accidents of this kind were commonplace at this time. Management professor Peter Drucker credits Kafka with developing the first civilian hard hat while he was employed at the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute, but this is not supported by any document from his employer.[26][27] His father often referred to his son's job as insurance officer as a "Brotberuf", literally "bread job", a job done only to pay the bills. While Kafka often claimed that he despised the job, he was a diligent and capable employee. He was also given the task of compiling and composing the annual report and was reportedly quite proud of the results, sending copies to friends and family. Similarly, Kafka was also committed to his literary work. Together with his close friends Max Brod and Felix Weltsch, these three were called Der enge Prager Kreis, the close-knit Prague circle, which was part of a broader Prague Circle, "a loosely knit group of German-Jewish writers who contributed to the culturally fertile soil of Prague from the 1880s till after World War I".[28]

In 1911, Karl Hermann, spouse of his sister Elli, asked Kafka to collaborate in the operation of an asbestos factory known as Prager Asbestwerke Hermann & Co. Kafka showed a positive attitude at first, dedicating much of his free time to the business. During that period, he also found interest and entertainment in the performances of Yiddish theatre, despite the misgivings of close friends such as Max Brod, who usually supported him in everything else. Those performances also served as a starting point for his growing relationship with Judaism.[29] It was at about this time that Kafka became a vegetarian.[30] Around 1915 Kafka received his draft notice for military service in World War I but his employers arranged for a deferment because his work was considered essential government service. Later he volunteered for service but medical problems due to tuberculosis kept him out of the military.[31]

Later years

Kafka in 1923

On 13 August 1912, at Max Brod's home, Kafka met Felice Bauer, a relative of Brod who lived in Berlin and worked as a representative for a dictaphone company. A week after the meeting Kafka entered in his diary: "Miss FB. When I arrived at Brod's on 13 August, she was sitting at the table. I was not at all curious about who she was, but rather took her for granted at once. Bony, empty face that wore its emptiness openly. Bare throat. A blouse thrown on. Looked very domestic in her dress although, as it turned out, she by no means was. (I alienate myself from her a little by inspecting her so closely ...) Almost broken nose. Blonde, somewhat straight, unattractive hair, strong chin. As I was taking my seat I looked at her closely for the first time, by the time I was seated I already had an unshakeable opinion".[32][33] Over the next five years they communicated mostly through letters, met occasionally, and were engaged twice. Kafka broke the second engagement in 1917 when he began to suffer from tuberculosis. Kafka's extant letters to her were published as Briefe an Felice (Letters to Felice); her letters do not survive.[32][34][35]

During the time that Kafka knew Felice Bauer, he had an affair with a friend of hers, Grete Bloch, whom Brod refers to her as "Frau M. M.". Bloch was a Jewish woman from Berlin. A son fathered by Kafka was born to Bloch, but Kafka never knew about the child. This son's name is not known. He was born in 1914 or 1915 and died in Munich just before his seventh birthday in 1921.[36][37]

Beginning in 1920 Kafka developed an intense relationship with Czech journalist and writer Milena Jesenská. In July 1923, during a vacation to Graal-Müritz on the Baltic Sea, he met Dora Diamant and briefly moved to Berlin in the hope of distancing himself from his family's influence to concentrate on his writing. In Berlin, he lived with Diamant, a 25-year-old kindergarten teacher from an orthodox Jewish family. Diamant was independent enough to have escaped her past in the ghetto. She became his lover, and caused Kafka to become interested in the Talmud.[38]

Kafka's tuberculosis worsened and he returned to Prague, where members of his family, principally his sister Ottla, took care of him. He went to Dr. Hoffmann's sanatorium in Kierling near Vienna for treatment, where he died on 3 June 1924, apparently from starvation. The condition of Kafka's throat made eating too painful for him, and since parenteral nutrition had not yet been developed, there was no way to feed him.[39][40] He was aged 40 years and 11 months. His body was ultimately brought back to Prague where he was buried on 11 June 1924, in the New Jewish Cemetery (sector 21, row 14, plot 33) in Prague-Žižkov.[41]

Personality

Despite Kafka's fear of being perceived as both physically and mentally repulsive, he impressed others with his boyish, neat and austere good looks, a quiet and cool demeanor, obvious intelligence and dry sense of humor.[42] Kafka was very sensitive to noise and preferred writing in quiet.[43] His friend Brod compared him to Heinrich von Kleist, noting that both writers had the ability to describe dreams and irrealism in a child-like playful attitude with realism in details.[44] Brod experienced him as one of the most entertaining people he ever met, who liked to laugh and make his friends laugh, but also helped them in difficult situations with good advice.[45] He was a passionate recitator, who was able to phrase his speaking as if it were music.[46]

Kafka was a good rider, swimmer and rower.[47] He was the planner for long hikes with his friends, frequently Brod and Weltsch, on weekends.[48] He was interested in alternative medicine and modern education systems such as Montessori,[47] also in technical novelties such as airplanes and film.[49]

Brod felt that two of Kafka's most distinguishing traits were "absolute truthfulness" (absolute Wahrhaftigkeit) and "precise conscientiousness" (präzise Gewissenhaftigkeit).[47][50] He went after the small and simple with love and precision, discovering aspects that seem strange but are nothing but true (nichts als wahr).[51]

Some sources have claimed that Kafka possessed a schizoid personality disorder.[52] His work, they claim, not only in "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis"), but in various other writings, appear to show low to medium-level schizoid characteristics, which explain much of his surprising work. However, a study of Kafka's family and early life by psychoanalyst Alice Miller in her book Thou Shalt Not Be Aware offers a different angle on the sources of Kafka's psychological anguish and his expression of his painful early life in his writings.[53] His anguish can be seen in this diary entry from 21 June 1913:

The tremendous world I have in my head. But how to free myself and free them without ripping apart. And a thousand times rather tear in me they hold back or buried. For this I'm here, that's quite clear to me.[54]

Though Kafka never married, he had several girlfriends during his life and held marriage and children in high esteem.[55] There are speculations regarding Kafka's sexuality and a possible eating disorder. In a 1988 paper published by the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Munich "evidence for the hypothesis that the poet Franz Kafka had suffered from an atypical anorexia nervosa is presented".[56] In his 1995 book Franz Kafka, the Jewish Patient, Sander Gilman investigated "why a Jew might have been considered 'hypochondriac' or 'homosexual' and how Kafka incorporates aspects of these ways of understanding the Jewish male into his own self-image and writing".[57] Kafka is known to have considered committing suicide at least once, in late 1912.[58] While unknown during his lifetime, Kafka quickly became famous after he died. However, fame was not important to him, he considered writing a "form of prayer".[59]

Political views

Kafka attended meetings of the Klub Mladých, a Czech anarchist, anti-militarist and anti-clerical organization.[60] Hugo Bergmann, who attended both the same elementary and high schools as Kafka, had a falling out with Kafka during their last academic year (1900–1901) because "[Kafka's] socialism and my Zionism were much too strident".[61][62] "Franz became a socialist, I became a Zionist in 1898. The synthesis of Zionism and socialism did not yet exist".[62] Bergmann claims that Kafka openly wore a red carnation to school to show his support for socialism.[62] In one diary entry, Kafka made reference to influential anarchist philosopher Peter Kropotkin: "Don't forget Kropotkin!"[63] He later stated, regarding the Czech anarchists: "They all sought thanklessly to realize human happiness. I understood them. But ... I was unable to continue marching alongside them for long".[64] East European views of Kafka from the communist era vary from him portraying the bureaucratic bungling of a crumbling Austria-Hungarian Empire to the embodiment of rising socialism.[65] Whether or not Kafka was a political writer is still an issue of debate.[66]

Judaism and Zionism

Kafka grew up a German-speaking Jew in a city, Prague, dominated by Czech-speaking Gentiles.[67] He was deeply fascinated by the Jews of Eastern Europe, whom he regarded as having an intensity of spiritual life Jews further west did not have. His diary is full of references to Yiddish writers, known and unknown.[68] Yet he was at times alienated from Judaism and Jewish life: "What have I in common with Jews? I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe".[69]

According to James Hawes, Kafka, though much aware of his own Jewishness, did not incorporate it into his work. "There is zero actual Jewishness" nor any Jewish characters or specifically Jewish scenes in his work, notes Hawes.[70][71] In the opinion of literary critic Harold Bloom, despite Kafka being uneasy with his Jewish heritage, he was the quintessential Jewish writer.[72] Lothar Kahn is likewise unequivocal: "The presence of Jewishness in Kafka's oeuvre is no longer subject to doubt".[73] Pavel Eisner, one of Kafka's first translators, interprets the classic, Der Process (The Trial) as the "triple dimension of Jewish existence in Prague is embodied in Kafka's The Trial: his protagonist Josef K. is (symbolically) arrested by a German (Rabensteiner), a Czech (Kullich) and a Jew (Kaminer). He stands for the 'guiltless guilt' that imbues the Jew in the modern world, although there is no evidence that he himself is a Jew".[74]

Kafka considered moving to Palestine with Felice Bauer, and later Dora Diamant. He studied Hebrew in Berlin, and hired a friend of Brod's, Pua Bat-Tovim, a university student from Palestine, to teach him some Hebrew.[68] Kafka attended Rabbi Julius Guttmann's[c] class in the Berlin Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Berlin College for Judaic Science).[75] In his essay, Sadness in Palestine?!, Dan Miron explores Kafka's connection to Zionism. "It seems that those who claim that there was such a connection and that Zionism played a central role in his life and literary work, and those who deny the connection altogether or dismiss its importance, are both wrong. The truth lies in some very elusive place between these two simplistic poles".[68]

Livia Rothkirchen calls Kafka the "symbolic figure of his era".[74] His era included numerous other Jewish writers (Czech, German and national Jews) who were sensitive to German, Czech, Austrian and Jewish culture. According to Rothkirchen, "This situation lent their writings a broad cosmopolitan outlook and a quality of exaltation bordering on transcendental metaphysical contemplation. An illustrious example is Franz Kafka".[74]

Work

Main article: Franz Kafka bibliography
First page of Kafka's letter to his father

All of Kafka's published works, except several letters he wrote in Czech to Milena Jesenská, were written in German. Kafka's writing attracted little attention during his lifetime.

Stories

Kafka was a prolific writer of the genre Erzählung (literally: narrative), mostly called short story. Some stories are rather long, while others are a single paragraph. His oldest surviving story was titled "Der Unredliche in seinem Herzen" ("The Impure in His Heart"), rendered as "Shamefaced Lanky and Impure in Heart". It was not published but was part of a letter to his friend Oskar Pollak in 1902. Kafka's earliest published works were eight stories, published in 1908 as Betrachtung (Contemplation) in the in the first issue of the literary journal Hyperion. He worked on the story "Beschreibung eines Kampfes" ("Description of a Struggle")[d] from 1904 to 1909 and showed it to his friend Max Brod who advised him to continue writing and convinced him to submit it to Franz Blei's Hyperion. He published a fragment in 1908,[76] and two sections in the spring of 1909.[77]

Kafka wrote in a creative outburst the night of September 22, 1912 the story "Das Urteil" ("The Judgment", literally: "The Verdict"). He later described it as "the total opening of body and soul" and "the story evolved as a true birth, covered with filth and slime". He viewed the work as "one of his most successful and perfect literary creations" which he was able to write in a "semi-unconscious state of mind." The story was dedicated "to Miss Felice Bauer", and in subsequent editions simply "for F.".[78]

The story "In der Strafkolonie" ("In the Penal Colony"), dealing with an elaborate torture and execution device, was written in October 1914,[78] revised in 1918, and first published in October 1919. "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis", also "The Transformation") was written in 1912[79] and first published in 1915. The story begins with a traveling salesman waking to find himself transformed into a ungeheuren Ungeziefer, a monstrous vermin, Ungeziefer being a general term for unwanted and unclean animals. The work is regarded as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century. The story "Ein Hungerkünstler" ("A Hunger Artist"), published in the periodical Die neue Rundschau in 1924, describes a victimized protagonist who experiences the decline in the appreciation of his strange craft.[80]

Novels

Kafka's first novel project, begun in 1912,[81] was named by him Der Verschollene (The Man Who Disappeared or The Missing Man), and became later known as Amerika. Its first chapter is the story "Der Heizer" ("The Stoker"). The unfinished novel is more explicitly humorous and slightly more realistic than most of Kafka's works, but it shares the same motifs of an oppressive and intangible system putting the protagonist repeatedly in bizarre situations.[82] It is the only work for which Kafka ever considered an optimistic ending.[83] When Brod published it after Kafka's death he titled it Amerika.

Kafka began the novel Der Process (The Trial) in 1914,[77] the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed to neither him nor the reader. The novel was not completed, but the final chapter was finished. Elias Canetti titled his book on Kafka's letters to Felice Kafka's Other Trial, in recognition of their relation to the novel The Trial, described as "a novel ... in which Kafka's engagement to Felice is re-imagined as the mysterious and menacing arrest of the hero".[84] Michiko Kakutani notes in a review for The New York Times, Kafka's Kafkaesque Love Letters, that Kafka's letters have the "earmarks of his fiction: the same nervous attention to minute particulars; the same paranoid awareness of shifting balances of power; the same atmosphere of emotional suffocation – combined, surprisingly enough, with moments of boyish ardor and delight."[84]

Kafka planned his novel Das Schloss (The Castle), already in 1914, according to an entry in his diary of June 11, 1914,[77] but began writing on January 27, 1922. The protagonist is the Landvermesser (land surveyor) named "K.", who struggles for unknown reasons to gain access to the mysterious authorities of a castle who govern the village. Kafka had suggested that in the end the castle notify K. on his death bed that his "legal claim to live in the village was not valid, yet, taking certain auxiliary circumstances into account, he was to be permitted to live and work there".[85] Dark and at times surreal, the novel is focused on alienation, bureaucracy, the seemingly endless frustrations of man's attempts to stand against the system, and the futile and hopeless pursuit of an unobtainable goal. Hartmut M. Rastalsky noted in his thesis: "Like dreams, his texts combine precise “realistic” detail with absurdity, careful observation and reasoning on the part of the protagonists with inexplicable obliviousness and carelessness."[86]

Kafka never finished any of his full length novels. It is estimated he burned 90% of his own work.[82]

Publications

First edition of Betrachtung, 1912

Kafka's stories were initially published in literary periodicals. The first eight stories were printed in the first issue of the bi-monthly Hyperion in 1908.[87] Franz Blei published two dialogues in 1909 which became part of "Beschreibung eines Kampfes" ("Description of a Struggle").[87] A fragment of the story "Die Aeroplane in Brescia" ("The Aeroplanes At Brescia") appeared in the daily Bohemia on September 28, 1909.[87][88] Bohemia's Easter edition on March 27, 1910 contained several stories that later became part of the book Betrachtung.[87][89] In 1931, Max Brod and Kurt Wolff published first "Das Urteil. Eine Geschichte von Franz Kafka." ("The Verdict. A Story by Franz Kafka.") in their literary yearbook for the art poetry Arkadia (Arkadia. Ein Jahrbuch für Dichtkunst.) in Leipzig.[87] Other stories were first published in Brod's Der Jude, the periodicals Die neue Rundschau, Genius and Prager Presse, and the paper Prager Tagblatt, among others.[87]

Kafka's first published book was a collection of 18 stories, Betrachtung (Contemplation, also Meditation) written between 1904 and 1912. On a summer trip to Weimar, Brod had initiated a meeting of Kafka and publisher Kurt Wolff,[90] who had it printed at the end of 1912 (with the year given as "1913") in the Rowohlt Verlag.[91] Kafka dedicated it it to Max Brod, in the printed book "Für M.B.", and added in the personal copy given to his friend "So wie es hier schon gedruckt ist, für meinen liebsten Max — Franz K." (As it is already printed here, for my dearest Max).[92]

Kafka's influential story "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis") was first printed in the October 1915 issue of Die Weißen Blätter, a monthly edition of expressionist literature, edited by René Schickele.[91]

Another story collection, Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor), was published by Kurt Wolff in 1920.[91] Kafka dedicated the book to his father.[93] Kafka prepared a final collection of four stories for print, Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist), which appeared in 1924 after his death in Verlag Die Schmiede. On 20 April 1924, the Berliner Börsen-Courier published Kafka's essay on Adalbert Stifter.[94]

Max Brod

First edition of Das Schloss, 1926

Kafka left his published and unpublished work to his friend and literary executor Max Brod with explicit instructions that it should be destroyed on his (Kafka's) death; Kafka wrote: "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread".[95][96] Brod decided to ignore this request and went on to publish the novels and collected works between 1925 and 1935. Papers not yet published were taken in suitcases by Brod when he fled to Palestine in 1939.[97] Kafka's lover, Dora Diamant, also ignored his wishes, secretly keeping up to 20 notebooks and 35 letters until they were confiscated by the Gestapo in 1933. An ongoing international search is being conducted for these missing Kafka papers.[98]

Brod oversaw the publication of most of Kafka's work in his possession,[23] which soon began to attract attention and high critical regard. He encountered significant difficulty in compiling Kafka's notebooks into any chronological order. One of the problems was that Kafka sometimes started in the middle of a notebook, sometimes wrote from the last page towards the first.[99][100]

Brod prepared for publication of the novels The Trial (chapters were unnumbered and some were incomplete),[100] The Castle (which stopped mid-sentence and had ambiguity on content),[100] and Amerika, which Kafka had titled Der Verschollene (The Man who Disappeared). It appears Brod took a few liberties with the manuscripts, such as moving chapters, changing the German and cleaning up the punctuation. The Trial appeared in 1925 in Verlag Die Schmiede, Kurt Wolff published the other two novels, The Castle in 1926, Amerika in 1927. In 1931, Brod edited a collection of unpublished stories and other prose as Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (The Great Wall of China), including the story of the same name. The book appeared in the Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag. Brod's editions are usually called the Definitive Editions.[101]

Modern editions

In 1961, Malcolm Pasley was able to get most of Kafka's original handwritten work into the Oxford Bodleian Library, according to the publisher's note for The Castle.[102][103] The text for The Trial was later acquired through auction and is stored at the German Literary Archives in Marbach, Germany.[103][104]

Subsequently, Pasley headed a team (including Gerhard Neumann, Jost Schillemeit and Jürgen Born) in reconstructing the German novels and S. Fischer Verlag republished them.[105] Pasley was the editor for The Castle, published in 1982, and Der Prozeß (The Trial), published in 1990. Jost Schillemeit was the editor of Der Verschollene (Amerika) published in 1983. These are all called the "Critical Editions" or the "Fischer Editions". The German critical text of these, and Kafka's other works, may be found online at The Kafka Project.[106] This site is continuously building the repository.

Another Kafka Project is based at San Diego State University (SDSU), which began in 1998 as the official international search for Kafka's last writings. His last companion, Dora Diamant (later, Dymant-Lask) owned 20 notebooks and 35 letters which were confiscated by the Gestapo in Berlin 1933.[98] The Kafka Project's four-month search of government archives in Berlin in 1998 uncovered the confiscation order and other significant documents. In 2003, the Kafka Project discovered three original Kafka letters, written in 1923. Building on the search conducted by Max Brod and Klaus Wagenbach in the mid-1950s, the Kafka Project at SDSU has an advisory committee of international scholars and researchers, and is calling for volunteers who want to help solve a literary mystery.[107]

In 2008, academic and Kafka expert James Hawes accused scholars of suppressing details about the pornography Kafka subscribed to, which was published by the same man who was Kafka's own first publisher, in order to preserve his image as a quasi-saintly "outsider".[70][71] In 2010 a series of boxes containing writings, letters and sketches of the author thought to be lost were opened. Among the writings was a story by Kafka.[82]

Unpublished papers

When Brod died he left Kafka's unpublished papers, which are believed to number in the thousands, to his secretary Esther Hoffe. She only released or sold a few of them, leaving most to her daughters, Eva and Ruth, who also would not release the papers. A court battle began in 2008 between them and the National Library of Israel, which claims they became the property of the nation of Israel when Brod emigrated to Israel in 1939. Only Eva was still alive as of 2012.[108] A ruling by a Tel Aviv family court in 2010 held that the papers must be released and a few were, including a previously unknown story, but the court battle continued.[109] The Hoffe's claimed the papers are their personal property while the National Library claims they are "cultural assets belonging to the Jewish people".[109] This court battle was ongoing in mid-2012.[108] Esther Hoffe sold the original manuscript of The Trial to the German Literary Archive Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach am Neckar in 1988 for $2 million USD and the National Library claims Brod specified in his will that the papers should go to them.[82][110]

List of selected works

Many of Kafka's works have uncertain dates of writing and/or were written over long periods of time. In such cases the year the writing of the work began is used. Year and place of first publication is used. Many works, including all novels, were never finished by Kafka.

For many works the German text is available, for several works also an English translation. It is linked in columns "de" and "en".

List of selected works
Standard English title German title Literal English title de en Genre Date of writing Date of first publication Place of publication Remarks
Amerika
or The Man Who Disappeared 		Amerika or Der Verschollene America de novel 1912 1927 Leipzig title Amerika by Brod, expansion of the story "Der Heizer" ("The Stoker")
The Trial Der Process de novel 1914 1925 Berlin also spelled in German as Der Prozess and Der Prozeß, includes short story "Vor dem Gesetz" ("Before the Law")
The Castle Das Schloss The Palace de novel 1922 1926 Leipzig also spelled in German as Das Schloß
Contemplation, collection of 18 stories, also known as Meditation Betrachtung de story collection 1904–1912 1912 Leipzig first published from 1909 in Hyperion
A Country Doctor Ein Landarzt de story collection 1919 1919 Leipzig
A Hunger Artist Ein Hungerkünstler de story collection 1922 1922 Prague
The Great Wall of China Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer de story collection 1918 1931 Berlin
The Warden of the Tomb Der Gruftwächter play 1916–1917 1958 New York in Description of a Struggle
"Description of a Struggle" including "Conversation with the Supplicant",

"Conversation with the Drunk"

"Beschreibung eines Kampfes" including "Gespräch mit dem Beter",

"Gespräch mit dem Betrunkenen"

Urteil, Beter Betrunkener story 1904 1909 Munich dialogues first published in Hyperion
"Wedding Preparations in the Country" "Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande" de story 1907–1908 1954 London an incomplete work intended to be a novel
"The Aeroplanes At Brescia" "Die Aeroplane in Brescia" de story 1909 1909 September Prague first published in Bohemia
"The Judgment" "Das Urteil" The Verdict de story 1912 22–23 September 1913 Leipzig in the literary yearbook Arkadia
"The Stoker" "Der Heizer" de story 1913 1927 Leipzig in Amerika
"In the Penal Colony" "In der Strafkolonie" de en story 1914 1919 Leipzig
"The Village Schoolmaster"
("The Giant Mole") 		"Der Dorfschullehrer" or "Der Riesenmaulwurf" de story 1914–1915 1931 Berlin in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" "Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle" de story 1915 1958 New York in Description of a Struggle
"The Metamorphosis" "Die Verwandlung" "The Transformation" de en story 1912 1915 Leipzig
"The Hunter Gracchus" "Der Jäger Gracchus" de story 1917 1931 Berlin in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"A Report to an Academy" "Ein Bericht für eine Akademie" de story 1917 1917 Prague in Der Jude
"Jackals and Arabs" "Schakale und Araber" de story 1917 1917 Prague in Der Jude
"The Great Wall of China" "Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer" At the building of the Chinese Wall de story 1918 1931 Berlin in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"A Country Doctor" "Ein Landarzt" de en story 1919 1919 Leipzig in Ein Landarzt
"An Old Manuscript" "Ein altes Blatt" An old page, An old leaf de story 1919 1920 Leipzig in Ein Landarzt
"The Refusal" "Die Abweisung" The Rejection story 1920 1970 Frankfurt Title by Brod, same as an earlier story by Kafka
"A Hunger Artist"
("A Fasting Artist",
"A Starvation Artist") 		"Ein Hungerkünstler" en story 1922 1922 Prague in the periodical Die neue Rundschau, then in Ein Hungerkünstler in 1924
"First Sorrow" "Erstes Leid" de story 1921–1922 1922 Leipzig in periodical Genius
"Investigations of a Dog" "Forschungen eines Hundes" de story 1923 1931 Berlin in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"A Little Woman" "Eine kleine Frau" de story 1923–1924 1924 Prague in Prager Tagblatt, then in Ein Hungerkünstler in 1924
"The Burrow" "Der Bau" de story 1923–1924 1924 in Ein Hungerkünstler
"Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk" "Josephine, die Sängerin, oder Das Volk der Mäuse" de story 1923 1924 Prague in the periodical Prager Presse, the in Ein Hungerkünstler in 1924
"Poseidon" "Poseidon" de story 1920
Franz Kafka's Diaries Tagebücher diary 1910–1923 1948 New York
The Blue Octavo Notebooks Oxforder Oktavhefte Oxford Octavo Notebooks notebook 1917–1919 1954 New York also known as The Eight Octavo Notebooks
Letter to His Father Brief an den Vater de letter 1919 November 1966 New York
Letters to Felice Briefe an Felice letter collection 1912–1917 1967 Frankfurt am Main
Letters to Ottla Briefe an Ottla und die Familie Letters to Ottla and to the family letter collection 1909–1924 1974 Frankfurt am Main includes some letters to his parents and other family members
Letters to Milena Briefe an Milena letter collection 1920–23 1952 Frankfurt am Main
Letters to Family, Friends, and Editors Briefe 1902–1924 letter collection 1900–24 1959 New York most of the letters are to Max Brod
Zürau Aphorisms, The Die Zürauer Aphorismen or Betrachtungen über Sünde, Hoffnung, Leid und den wahren Weg Reflections on Sin, Hope, Suffering, and the True Way de aphorisms 1917–18 1931 Cologne Title by Brod

Critical interpretations

Franz Kafka's grave in Prague-Žižkov

Critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov,[111] regard Kafka as among the greatest writers of the 20th century. W. H. Auden called him the "Dante of the twentieth century".[112] The core theme in Kafka's work is father-son conflict that produces guilt in the son which is resolved through suffering and atonement.[7][113] Kafka's short story The Judgement was his breakthrough work that established this core theme of his.[113]

The multivalent nature of Kafka's prose allows for diverse interpretation—and for critics placing his works into a variety of literary schools.[66] The hopelessness and absurdity populating his works are seen as emblematic of existentialism.[114] Some see a Marxist influence in his satirizing of bureaucracy as in The Castle, The Trial and "In the Penal Colony";[66] others point to anarchism as inspiring his skewering of bureaucracy.[60] Some of Kafka's books drew influences from the expressionist movement, though the majority of his literary output was associated with the experimental modernist genre. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, his work was centered around the 20th century modernist issue with subjectivity and human limitations.[115] Much of Kafka's work touches on the theme of human conflict with bureaucracy; nevertheless, this has been disputed in an article on The Guardian, where William Burrows claims that such work is centred on the concepts of struggle, pain, solitude, the need for relationship, amongst others; he hence asserts that to view The Castle as a novel on bureaucracy is merely to "trivialise Kafka's artistic project" and "reductive".[116] Others such as Thomas Mann, see his work as an allegory of a metaphysical quest for God.[117]

The concept of self-alienation has been a topic of exploration by theorists for hundreds of years.[118] The alienation and persecution found in Kafka's work are emphasized by critics—with good reason—but over-emphasis of these themes inspired counter-criticism by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. They argue that Kafka's work is more deliberate and subversive—and more "joyful"—than may first appear. They point out that reading his work while focusing on the futility of his characters' struggles reveals Kafka's play at humor; he is not necessarily commenting on his own problems, but rather pointing out how people tend to invent problems.[117] Kafka saw the absurdity of human existence and that people could make it meaningful or not.[119] Biographers have noted that Kafka would read drafts of his works to his friends, typically concentrating on his humorous prose. According to Milan Kundera Kafka's surrealist humor was influential in the writing careers of Federico Fellini, Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, and Salman Rushdie.[117] García Márquez noted it was the reading of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" that showed him "that it was possible to write in a different way".[69][120]

"Law"

A number of attempts have been made to examine Kafka's legal background and the role of law in his fiction,[121][122] though relatively few compared to the vast collection of literature devoted to the study of his life and works, and marginal to legal scholarship. Mainstream studies of Kafka's works normally present his fiction as an engagement with absurdity, a critique of bureaucracy or a search for redemption, failing to account for the images of law and legality which constitute an important part of "the horizon of meaning" in his fiction. The law in Kafka's works is not usually interpreted to represent any particular legal or political entity. Rather, it is thought to represent the collection of anonymous, incomprehensible forces, hidden from the will and understanding of the individual, that control the lives of the people – innocent victims of systems beyond their control. Critics who support this absurdist interpretation of Kafka cite instances in which Kafka describes himself in conflict with an absurd universe, such as the following entry from his diary:

Enclosed in my own four walls, I found myself as an immigrant imprisoned in a foreign country...I saw my family as strange aliens whose foreign customs, rites, and very language defied comprehension...though I did not want it, they forced me to participate in their bizarre rituals...I could not resist.[123]

However, James Hawes argues many of Kafka's descriptions of the legal proceedings in The Trial  – metaphysical, absurd, bewildering and "Kafkaesque" as they might appear – are, in fact, based on accurate and informed, though exaggerated, descriptions of German and Austrian criminal proceedings of the time, not well understood by many British or American people, who are familiar with an adversarial rather than inquisitorial system of justice.[124] Similarly, the requirement for the traveler to register with the authorities in The Castle to stay a night in the village seems repressive and odd to the Anglosphere, whereas in the present-day Germans, as with most continental Europeans, are required to register their address and hoteliers are required to register their guests with the local authorities.[125]

The significance of law in Kafka's fiction is also neglected within legal scholarship, as Richard Posner pointed out, most lawyers do not consider writings about law in the form of fiction of any relevance to the understanding or the practice of law. Regardless of the concerns of mainstream studies of Kafka with redemption and absurdity, and what jurists such as Judge Posner might think relevant to law and legal practice, the fact remains that Kafka was an insurance lawyer who, besides being involved in litigation, was also "keenly aware of the legal debates of his day".[126][122]

In a recent study which uses Kafka's office writings as its point of departure,[127] Reza Banakar argues that "legal images in Kafka's fiction are worthy of examination, not only because of their bewildering, enigmatic, bizarre, profane and alienating effects, or because of the deeper theological or existential meaning they suggest, but also as a particular concept of law and legality which operates paradoxically as an integral part of the human condition under modernity.[122] To explore this point Kafka's conception of law is placed in the context of his overall writing as a search for Heimat which takes us beyond the instrumental understanding of law advocated by various schools of legal positivism and allows us to grasp law as a form of experience".[122] Pothik Ghosh states the with Kafka, law "has no meaning outside its fact of being a pure force of domination and determination".[128]

Translations

The earliest English translations, published by Alfred A. Knopf, were by Edwin and Willa Muir. They translated in 1930 the first German edition of Das Schloss to The Castle, published by Secker & Warburg in England and Alfred A. Knopf in the United States.[129] A 1941 edition, including a homage by Thomas Mann, spurred a surge in Kafka's popularity in the United States the late-1940s.

Later editions, notably the 1954 editions, included the deleted text translated by Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser. Known as "Definitive Editions", they include translations of The Trial, Definitive, The Castle, Definitive and other writings. These translations are generally accepted to have a number of biases and are considered to be dated in interpretation.[130]

New translations were completed and published based on the recompiled German text of Pasley and Schillemeit – The Castle, Critical by Mark Harman (Schocken Books, 1998), The Trial, Critical by Breon Mitchell (Schocken Books, 1998) and Amerika: The Man Who Disappeared by Michael Hoffman (New Directions Publishing, 2004).[130]

Translation problems to English

Kafka often made extensive use of a characteristic particular to the German language allowing for long sentences that sometimes can span an entire page. Kafka's sentences then deliver an unexpected impact just before the full stop—that being the finalizing meaning and focus. This is achieved due to the construction of certain sentences in German which require that the verb be positioned at the end of the sentence. Such constructions are difficult to duplicate in English, so it is up to the resourceful translator to provide the reader with the same (or at least equivalent) effect found in the original text.[131]

German sentences also have a different grammar. Linguists see English as "head-initial", German as "head-final", illustrated with a dependency tree of the first sentence of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis": English

Another virtually insurmountable problem facing translators is how to deal with the author's intentional use of ambiguous terms and of words that have several meanings. One such instance is found in the first sentence of "The Metamorphosis". English translators have often sought to render the word Ungeziefer as "insect"; in Middle German, however, Ungeziefer literally means "unclean animal not suitable for sacrifice",[132] in today's German it means vermin. It is sometimes used colloquially to mean "bug" – a very general term, unlike the scientific sounding "insect". Kafka had no intention of labeling Gregor, the protagonist of the story, as any specific thing, but instead wanted to convey Gregor's disgust at his transformation. Another example is Kafka's use of the German noun Verkehr in the final sentence of The Judgment. Literally, Verkehr means intercourse and, as in English, can have either a sexual or non-sexual meaning; in addition, it is used to mean transport or traffic. The sentence can be translated as: "At that moment an unending stream of traffic crossed over the bridge".[133] What gives added weight to the obvious double meaning of 'Verkehr' is Kafka's confession to Max Brod that when he wrote that final line, he was thinking of "a violent ejaculation".[134]

Legacy

"Kafkaesque"

"Kafkaesque" redirects here. For the Breaking Bad episode, see Breaking Bad (season 3).
Jaroslav Róna's bronze statue of Franz Kafka in Prague

The term "Kafkaesque" is widely used to describe concepts, situations and ideas that are reminiscent of Kafka's works, particularly The Trial and "The Metamorphosis". The term has been described as "marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity: Kafkaesque bureaucracies"[135] and "marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger: Kafkaesque fantasies of the impassive interrogation, the false trial, the confiscated passport ... haunt his innocence."[136] It can also describe an intentional distortion of reality by powerful but anonymous bureaucrats. "Lack of evidence is treated as a pesky inconvenience, to be circumvented by such Kafkaesque means as depositing unproven allegations into sealed files..".[137] Another definition would be an existentialist state of ever-elusive freedom while existing under unmitigable control. The adjective refers to anything suggestive of Kafka, especially his nightmarish style of narration, in which characters lack a clear course of action, the ability to see beyond immediate events, and the possibility of escape. The term's meaning has transcended the literary realm to apply to real-life occurrences and situations that are incomprehensibly complex, bizarre, or illogical.[138]

In Mexico, the phrase "Si Franz Kafka fuera mexicano, sería costumbrista" (If Franz Kafka were Mexican, he would be a Costumbrista writer) is commonly used in newspapers, blogs and online forums to describe the hopelessness and absurdity of the country's situation.[139]

Commemoration

The entrance to the Franz Kafka museum in Prague

Franz Kafka has a museum dedicated to his work in Prague, Czech Republic.[140] Asteroid 3412 Kafka was named after the author.[141] The Franz Kafka Prize was established in 2001, to recognize the artwork's "humanistic character and contribution to cultural, national, language and religious tolerance, its existential, timeless character, its generally human validity and its ability to hand over a testimony about our times".[142]

Literary and cultural influence

Famous writers are often quoted. But Kafka is rarely quoted because his visions and perspective are what he is noted for.[143] Some of the writers influenced by Kafka include: Jorge Luis Borges,[144] Albert Camus,[144] Eugène Ionesco,[144] Murilo Rubião, J.D. Salinger, José Saramago,[145], and Jean-Paul Sartre.[146] In 1999 a committee of 99 authors, scholars, and literary critics ranked the The Trial and The Castle, the second and ninth most significant German-language novels of the 20th century.[147] Literary critic Shimon Sandbank argues that despite Kafka's pervasiveness, his enigmatic style has yet to be repeated.[144] His influence transcends literature and literary scholarship as it still impacts visual arts, music, and popular culture.[148]

Title Year Genre Remarks Ref
"A Friend of Kafka" 1962 short story by Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer, about a Yiddish actor called Jacques Kohn who said he knew Franz Kafka; in this story, according to Jacques Kohn, Kafka believed in the Golem, a legendary creature from Jewish folklore [149]
Watermelon Man 1970 film partly inspired by "The Metamorphosis", where a white bigot wakes up as a black man [150]
"Kafka-Fragmente, Op. 24" 1985 music by Hungarian composer György Kurtág for soprano and violin, using fragments of Kafka's diary and letters [151]
Kafka's Dick 1986 play by Alan Bennett, in which the ghosts of Kafka, his father Hermann and Max Brod arrive at the home of an English insurance clerk (and Kafka aficionado) and his wife [152]
Kafka 1991 film stars Jeremy Irons as the eponymous author; written by Lem Dobbs and directed by Steven Soderbergh, the movie mixes his life and fiction providing a semi-biographical presentation of Kafka's life and works; Kafka investigates the disappearance of one of his work colleagues, taking Kafka through many of the writer's own works, most notably The Castle and The Trial [153]
Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life 1993 film short comedy film made for BBC Scotland, won an Oscar, was written and directed by Peter Capaldi, and starred Richard E. Grant as Kafka [154]
"Bad Mojo" 1996 computer game loosely based on "The Metamorphosis", with characters named Franz and Roger Samms, alluding to Gregor Samsa [155]
Kafka's Trial 2005 opera by Danish composer Poul Ruders based on the novel and parts of Kafka's life; first performed in 2005, released on CD [156]
Kafka's Soup 2005 book by Mark Crick, is a literary pastiche in the form of a cookbook, with recipes written in the style of a famous author [157]
Kafka's Hell-Paradise 2006 play by Milan Richter with 5 characters, using Kafka's aphorisms, dreams and re-telling his relations to his father and women, translated from the Slovak by Ewald Osers [158]
Kafka's Second Life 2007 play by Milan Richter with 17 characters, starting in Kierling where Kafka is dying and ending in Prague in 1961, translated from the Slovak by Ewald Osers [159]
"Kafka the Musical" 2011 radio play by BBC Radio 3 produced as part of their Play of the Week programme. Franz Kafka was played by David Tennant [160]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ German pronunciation: [fʁants ˈkafka] Czech pronunciation: [ˈfrants kafka]
  2. ^ Some sources list June (Murray) as Kafka's graduation month and some list July (Brod).[21][22]
  3. ^ Some sources state Julius Grünthal
  4. ^ "Kampf" also translates to "fight".

References

  1. ^ Corngold 1972, p. 11.
  2. ^ a b Kafka-Franz 2012a.
  3. ^ a b Brod 1960, p. 3.
  4. ^ Gilman 2005, pp. 20–21.
  5. ^ Hamalian 1974, p. 3.
  6. ^ Brod 1960, p. 9.
  7. ^ a b Brod 1960, pp. 15–16.
  8. ^ Brod 1960, pp. 19–20.
  9. ^ Brod 1960, pp. 15, 17, 22–23.
  10. ^ a b Hawes 2008, p. 29.
  11. ^ a b Sayer 1996, pp. 164–210.
  12. ^ Brod 1960, p. 14.
  13. ^ Corngold 2004, p. xii.
  14. ^ Kafka Project 2012.
  15. ^ Diamant 2003, pp. 36–38.
  16. ^ Brod 1960, pp. 40–41.
  17. ^ Brod 1960, p. 40.
  18. ^ Brod 1966, pp. 53–54.
  19. ^ Brod 1960, pp. 51, 122–124.
  20. ^ Stach 2005, pp. 43–70.
  21. ^ Murray 2004, p. 62.
  22. ^ a b Brod 1960, p. 78.
  23. ^ a b Contijoch 2000.
  24. ^ Karl 1991, p. 210.
  25. ^ Glen 2007, pp. 23–66.
  26. ^ Drucker 2002, p. 24.
  27. ^ Corngold et. al. 2009, pp. 250–254.
  28. ^ Cliff 2012.
  29. ^ Stach 2005, pp. 36–37.
  30. ^ Brod 1960, pp. 29, 73–75, 109–110, 206.
  31. ^ Brod 1960, p. 154.
  32. ^ a b Banville 2011.
  33. ^ Köhler 2012.
  34. ^ Seubert 2012.
  35. ^ Brod 1960, pp. 196–197.
  36. ^ Brod 1960, pp. 240–242.
  37. ^ S. Fischer 2012.
  38. ^ Hempel 2002.
  39. ^ Believer 2006.
  40. ^ Brod 1960, pp. 209–211.
  41. ^ European Graduate School 2012.
  42. ^ Repertory 2005.
  43. ^ Brod 1960, p. 156.
  44. ^ Brod 1966, p. 41.
  45. ^ Brod 1966, p. 42.
  46. ^ Brod 1966, p. 97.
  47. ^ a b c Brod 1966, p. 49.
  48. ^ Brod 1966, p. 90.
  49. ^ Brod 1966, p. 92.
  50. ^ Brod 1960, p. 47.
  51. ^ Brod 1966, p. 52.
  52. ^ Pérez-Álvarez 2003, pp. 181–194.
  53. ^ Miller 1984, pp. 242–306.
  54. ^ Project Gutenberg 2012.
  55. ^ Brod 1960, pp. 139–140.
  56. ^ Fichter 1988, pp. 231–238.
  57. ^ Gilman 1995, back cover.
  58. ^ Brod 1960, p. 128.
  59. ^ Brod 1960, p. 214.
  60. ^ a b Lib.com 2008.
  61. ^ Bergman 1969, p. 8.
  62. ^ a b c Bruce 2007, p. 17.
  63. ^ Preece 2001, p. 131.
  64. ^ Janouch 1998, pp. 118–119.
  65. ^ Hughes 1986, pp. 248–249.
  66. ^ a b c Socialist Worker 2007.
  67. ^ History Guide 2006.
  68. ^ a b c Haaretz 2008.
  69. ^ a b Kafka-Franz 2012.
  70. ^ a b Guardian 2008.
  71. ^ a b Harper's 2008.
  72. ^ Bloom 1994, p. 428.
  73. ^ Kahn & Hook 1993, p. 191.
  74. ^ a b c Rothkirchen 2005, p. 23.
  75. ^ Brod 1960, p. 196.
  76. ^ Pawel 1985, pp. 160–163.
  77. ^ a b c Brod 1966, p. 388.
  78. ^ a b Brod 1966, p. 389.
  79. ^ Brod 1966, p. 113.
  80. ^ Gray 2005, p. 131.
  81. ^ Brod 1960, p. 113.
  82. ^ a b c d New York Times 2010.
  83. ^ Brod 1960, p. 137.
  84. ^ a b Kakutani 1988.
  85. ^ Boyd 2004, p. 139.
  86. ^ Rastalsky 1997, p. 1.
  87. ^ a b c d e f Itk 2008.
  88. ^ Brod 1966, p. 94.
  89. ^ Brod 1966, p. 61.
  90. ^ Brod 1966, p. 110.
  91. ^ a b c European Graduate School 2012a.
  92. ^ Brod 1966, p. 115.
  93. ^ Leiter 1958, pp. 337–347.
  94. ^ Krolop, p. 103.
  95. ^ Kafka 1988, publisher's notes.
  96. ^ Guardian 2009.
  97. ^ Butler 2011, pp. 3–8.
  98. ^ a b Kafka Project SDSU 2012.
  99. ^ Kafka 2009a, p. xxvii.
  100. ^ a b c Diamant 2003, p. 144.
  101. ^ Kafka 2009, Publications.
  102. ^ Jewish Heritage 2012.
  103. ^ a b Kafka 1998, publisher's notes.
  104. ^ O'Neill 2004, p. 681.
  105. ^ Adler 1995.
  106. ^ Kafka Project 2011.
  107. ^ Murray 2004, pp. 367, 374.
  108. ^ a b NPR 2012.
  109. ^ a b Guardian 2010.
  110. ^ Buehrer 2011.
  111. ^ Durantaye 2007, p. 317.
  112. ^ Bloom 2002, p. 206.
  113. ^ a b Gale Research Inc. 1979, pp. 288–311.
  114. ^ Sokel 2001, pp. 102–109.
  115. ^ Britannica 2012.
  116. ^ Burrows 2011.
  117. ^ a b c Kafka 2009, Critical interpretations.
  118. ^ Sokel 2001, p. 216.
  119. ^ Rahn 2011.
  120. ^ Paris Review 2012.
  121. ^ Glen 2007.
  122. ^ a b c d Banakar 2010.
  123. ^ Preece 2001, pp. 15–31.
  124. ^ Hawes 2008, pp. 212–214.
  125. ^ Hawes 2008, p. 217.
  126. ^ Ziolkowski 2003, p. 224.
  127. ^ Corngold et. al. 2009, pp. xi, 169, 188, 388.
  128. ^ Ghosh 2009.
  129. ^ Guardian 1930.
  130. ^ a b Kafka 2009, Translations.
  131. ^ Kafka 1996, p. xi.
  132. ^ Aurora Theater 2012.
  133. ^ Kafka 1996, p. 75.
  134. ^ Brod 1960, p. 129.
  135. ^ Infoplease 2012.
  136. ^ Free Dictionary 2012.
  137. ^ Websters 2012.
  138. ^ Wired 2011.
  139. ^ Aquella 2006.
  140. ^ Kafka Museum 2005.
  141. ^ Edberg & Levy 1994, p. 80.
  142. ^ Kafka Society 2011.
  143. ^ Hawes 2008, p. 4.
  144. ^ a b c d Sandbank 1992, pp. 441–443.
  145. ^ Financial Times 2009.
  146. ^ Tameri 2011.
  147. ^ LiteraturHaus 1999.
  148. ^ Coker 2012.
  149. ^ Singer 1970, p. 311.
  150. ^ Elsaesser 2004, p. 117.
  151. ^ Opera Today 2010.
  152. ^ Times Literary Supplement 2005.
  153. ^ Writer's Institute 1992.
  154. ^ New York Times 1993.
  155. ^ Dembo 1996, p. 106.
  156. ^ Ruders 2005.
  157. ^ Milner 2005.
  158. ^ Kafka 2009, Theatre.
  159. ^ Kafka 2009.
  160. ^ BBC 2012.

Bibliography

Journals

Newspapers

Online sources

Further reading

Journals

External links

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