Description
Book SynopsisNew essays by leading scholars on the most perplexing of modern writers, Franz Kafka. No other 20th-century writer of German-language literature has been as fully accepted into the canon of world literature as Franz Kafka. The unsettlingly, enigmatically surreal world of Kafka's novels and stories continues to fascinate readers and critics of each new generation, who in turn continue to find new readings. One thing has become clear: although all theories attempt to appropriate Kafka, there is no one key to his work. The challenge to criticshas been to present a strong point of view while taking account of previous Kafka research, a challenge that has been met by the contributors to this volume. Contributors: James Rolleston, Clayton Koelb, Walter H. Sokel, Judith Ryan, Russel A. Berman, Ritchie Robertson, Henry Sussman, Stanley Corngold, Bianca Theisen, Rolf J. Goebel, Richard T. Gray, Ruth V. Gross, Sander L. Gilman, John Zilcosky, Mark Harman James Rolleston is Professor Emeritus of German at Duke University.
Trade ReviewContains new material and insights by noted scholars whose work represents a full range of methodological and thematic diversity. * CHOICE *
Appropriately reflects the ever-widening circles within which Kafka's texts can be viewed. Especially prominent ... are the discussions of texts as meta-narratives, their thematizations of problematic message transfer, and their meditations on unbridgeable misconception. * MODERN AUSTRIAN LITERATURE *
This is a particularly successful collection,... several of whose individual studies will undoubtedly become touchstones of future Kafka research. * GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW *
This collection is necessary for any student of Kafka. The voices represented here, from the seasoned ... to the newly emerging, speak to the wide methodological range that typifies Kafka studies. * GERMAN QUARTERLY *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Kafka Begins - James Rolleston Critical Editions I: The 1994 Paperback Edition - James Rolleston Critical Editions II: Will the Real Franz Kafka Please Stand Up? - Beyond Self-Assertion: A Life of Reading Kafka - Walter H. Sokel Kafka Before Kafka: The Early Stories - Judith Ryan Tradition and Betrayal in "Das Urteil" - Russell A. Berman Kafka as Anti-Christian: "Das Urteil," "Die Verwandlung" and the Aphorisms - Ritchie Robertson Kafka's Aesthetics: A Primer: From the Fragments to the Novels - Henry Sussman Medial Allusions at the Ouset of Der Proceß; or, res in media - Stanley Corngold Kafka's Circus Turns: "Auf der Galerie" and "Erstes Leid" - Bianca Theisen Kafka and Postcolonial Critique: Der Verschollene, - Rolf J. Goebel Disjunctive Signs: Semiotics, Aesthetics and Failed Mediation in "In der Strafkolonie" - Richard T. Gray Hunting Kafka Out of Season: Enigmatics in the Short Fictions - Ruth V. Gross A Dream of Jewishness Denied: Kafka's Tumor and "Ein Landarzt" - Sander L. Gilman Surveying the Castle: Kafka's Colonial Visions - John Zilcosky Making Everything "A Little Uncanny": Kafka's Variants to Das Schloß and What They Can Tell Us About His Writing ProcessHis Writing Process - Mark Harman Kafka Imagines His Readers: The Rhetoric of "Josefine die Sängerin" and "Der Bau" -
