Description
Book SynopsisOn the night of September 22, 1912, Franz Kafka wrote his story "The Judgment," which came out of him "like a regular birth." This act of creation struck him as an unmistakable sign of his literary destiny. This title traces the implications of Kafka's literary breakthrough.
Trade Review"One of the most compelling and instructive books on Kafka to appear in recent years."--Choice "Readers of Lambent Traces will find themselves enraptured by Corngold's masterful explication of Kafka writing in ecstasy. This provocative work will constitute an exhilarating reading for literary scholars in general and Kafka scholars in particular."--David D. Kim, Focus on German Studies
Table of ContentsPreface xi Abbreviations for Kafka Citations xvii Introduction: Beginnings 1 Chapter 1 In the Circle of "The Judgment" 13 Chapter 2 The Trial: The Guilt of an Unredeemed Literary Promise 37 Segue I On Cultural Immortality 45 Chapter 3 Medial Interferences in The Trial 51 Or, res in Media Chapter 4 Allotria and Excreta in "In the Penal Colony" 67 Segue II Death and the Medium 81 Chapter 5 Nietzsche, Kafka, and Literary Paternity 94 Chapter 6 Something to Do with the Truth 111 Kafka's Later Stories Chapter 7 "A Faith Like a Guillotine" 126 Kafka on Skepticism Chapter 8 Kafka and the Dialect of Minor Literature 142 Chapter 9 Adorno's "Notes on Kafka" 158 A Critical Reconstruction Chapter 10 On Translation Mistakes, with Special Attention to Kafka in Amerika 176 Chapter 11 The Trouble with Cultural Studies 194 Notes 205 Acknowledgments 253 Index 255
