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Laddar... Franz Kafka (Reaktion Books - Critical Lives)av Sander L. Gilman
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The conflation of reality and the fantastic, ambiguity, the relentless confrontation with horror, the fractured sense of identity: Franz Kafka created a wholly unique and enduring worldview through his literature and life, and he remains one of the central intellectual and cultural figures of our time. Sander L. Gilman brings together Kafka's literary works, personal writings, and biography to create a compelling and wholly accessible narrative of the literary master's life. Gilman focuses on the relationship between Kafka's life and work, reconstructing both Kafka's cultural environment and the writer's conceptual understanding of his own body. Kafka's letters, diaries, and writings emerge in Gilman's analysis as windows into his ongoing attempt to create an identity in a world where being a Central European Jew dictated an uneasy fate. The volume emphasizes in particular the image and role of the Jew in Kafka's modern world and how Kafka responded to prevailing attitudes, repressive actions, and stereotypes in society at large. Gilman also examines the influence of psychoanalytic ideas on Kafka and his works, exploring how Kafka wove such psychoanalytic experiences into his literature. Gilman concludes with consideration of the "Kafka-myth" and the wealth of material emerging from it over the past eighty years, including work by such illustrious minds as Walter Benjamin and Ted Hughes. Franz Kafka features illuminating archival photographs and illustrations as well as a comprehensive bibliography and filmography of work by and about Kafka. This succinct yet penetrating volume offers valuable and original insight into how Kafka's life and work shaped how we perceive our modern society and how, indeed, some aspect of the world is always "Kafkaesque." Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
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Google Books — Laddar... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)833.912Literature German literature and literatures of related languages German fiction Modern period (1900-) 1900-1990 1900-1945Klassifikation enligt LCBetygMedelbetyg:
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Despite having read much about Kafka, I found several little nuggets of intriguing information in this work (notes below). However, the continued focus of Jewishness and "the body" seems somewhat labored/ artificial. In fact, a quote from the author (in specific reference to "The Judgment") applies to his own work: "it has always been possible to read the tale in many ways, filling in the cultural references based on those approved by the interpretive community in which one found oneself." Likewise, the author makes assertions about what Kafka and members of his family were feeling and thinking, without corroborative evidence. Further, he presents as factual the story that he (unknowingly) fathered a child with Grete Bloch =-- a story rebutted in Reiner Stach's major biography.
Overall, this short (160 page) book offers a semi-useful introduction to the life and work of Franz Kafka. However, I would recommend other works above this one, including Ritchie Robertson's "Kafka: A Very Short Introduction" (of the Very Short Introduction series).
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Among the nuggets of miscellaneous information that appealed to me were the following:
Gilman reproduces an extended quote from Vladimir Nabokov (who was an entomologist well as a novelist), who argued that from Kafka's description, Gregor Samsa was no cockroach, but rather, a winged beetle, who had not discovered that he had wings -- wings to escape with!.
Orson Welles (who produced a film version of "The Trial") opines that Kafka "is a good writer... but not the extraordinary genius that people see in him" (a view with which I am inclined to agree).
Jews of South Africa (I was interested to learn) were not classified as "white" until the 20th century when they became an economically successful minority. Europeans were defined by the alphabet of their language; therefore, Hebrews (who spoke in Yiddish and used a different alphabet) were classified as "coloured". ( )