Constructing China. Kafka's Orientalist Discourse

Goebel Rolf J.

Published by Camden House, Columbia, SC, 1997

About this Item

8vo, original cloth (no dj issued).137pp. Constructing China: Kafka's Orientalist Discourse (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) (ISBN:1571131442) Goebel studies four representative works by Kafka that explore the problems of the Western representation of the Orient: his 'Description of a Struggle'; several letters to Felice Bauer, offering an interpretation of Chinese poetry in connection with the conflict between writing and Kafka's love for Felice; the canonical story 'The Great Wall of China', parodically appropriating sterotypes of China's stagnant history and authoritarian emperors for a refutation of colonialist ideas of progress; and the sequel 'An Old Manuscript', dramatising China's invasion by foreign powers and the breakdown of crosscultural communication. Elucidating these themes from a broadly comparative perspective, Goebel shows Kafka to be one of German modernism's most intriguing and self-reflective writers on the Orient.ROLF J. GOEBEL is Professor of German at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Seller Inventory # 211014680

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Constructing China. Kafka's Orientalist Discourse
• Publisher: Camden House, Columbia, SC, 1997
• Binding: Cloth in Dj
• Condition: As New
• Seller catalogs:
  • CINA China Chine