Franz Kafka: The Poet of Shame and Guilt (Jewish Lives) - Hardcover

Friedländer, Saul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300136617 ISBN 13: 9780300136616

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2013

Synopsis

A highly original and engaging appraisal of Kafka’s life, work, legacy, and thought

Franz Kafka was the poet of his own disorder. Throughout his life he struggled with a pervasive sense of shame and guilt that left traces in his daily existence—in his many letters, in his extensive diaries, and especially in his fiction. This stimulating book investigates some of the sources of Kafka’s personal anguish and its complex reflections in his imaginary world.

In his query, Saul Friedländer probes major aspects of Kafka’s life (family, Judaism, love and sex, writing, illness, and despair) that until now have been skewed by posthumous censorship. Contrary to Kafka’s dying request that all his papers be burned, Max Brod, Kafka’s closest friend and literary executor, edited and published the author’s novels and other works soon after his death in 1924. Friedländer shows that, when reinserted in Kafka’s letters and diaries, deleted segments lift the mask of “sainthood” frequently attached to the writer and thus restore previously hidden aspects of his individuality.

About this title

Book Description

In this highly original book, Saul Friedländer appraises Kafka’s life and work, tracing his personal anguish as reflected in his writings and showing how earlier censorship efforts concealed crucial aspects of Kafka’s individuality.

From the Author

My family’s world was that of Prague Jews, belonging to a slightly younger cohort than Franz’s generation. Theirs was a quiet middle-class existence; they were relatively well off and considered themselves politically safe, notwithstanding ever more threatening rumblings during later years. They spoke German better than Czech (yet spoke Czech nonetheless). A few among them were interested in Zionism, but, with rare exceptions, those who emigrated to Palestine at the very last moment did so only by dint of the most catastrophic circumstances.

My father studied at the German Law School of Charles University, which Kafka had attended some fifteen years before; like Kafka, he eventually became legal adviser in a Prague insurance company. My mother’s family lived in the German-speaking area of Northern Bohemia in Ober-Rochlitz (which Kafka mentions as Röchlitz, near Gablonz, which he visited several times). My mother’s first name was Elli (Gabriele), as was that of Franz’s eldest sister. And, like those of Kafka’s three sisters, my parents’ lives ended in German camps. All these hidden links, discovered over time, may have added to my predilection for Kafka’s texts, beyond the appeal of their intrinsic greatness. . . .

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0300136617
• ISBN 13: 9780300136616
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 200