Franz Kafka : subversive dreamer / Michael Löwy ; translated by Inez Hedges.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Löwy, Michael, 1938- author.

Contributor:

Hedges, Inez, 1947- translator.

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), publisher.

Series:

Michigan studies in comparative Jewish cultures

Standardized Title:

Franz Kafka, rêveur insoumis. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924--Criticism and interpretation.

Kafka, Franz.

Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924.

Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (140 pages).

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2016]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Franz Kafka: Subversive Dreamer is an attempt to identify and properly contextualize the social critique in Kafka's biography and work that links father-son antagonisms, heterodox Jewish religious thinking, and anti-authoritarian or anarchist protest against the rising power of bureaucratic modernity. The book proceeds chronologically, starting with biographical facts often neglected or denied relating to Kafka's relations with the Anarchist circles in Prague, followed by an analysis of the three great unfinished novels-Amerika, The Trial, The Castle-as well as some of his most important short stories. Fragments, parables, correspondence, and his diaries are also used in order to bettor understand the major literary works. Löwy's book grapples with the critical and subversive dimension of Kafka's writings, which is often hidden or masked by the fabulistic character of the work. Lowy's reading has already generated controversy because of its distance from the usual canon of literary criticism about the Prague writer, but the book has been well received in its original French edition and has been translated into Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, and Turkish. Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 "Don't forget Kropotkin!": Kafka and Antiauthoritarian Socialism 9

Chapter 2 Tyrannies, from Patriarchal Autocracy to Impersonal Apparatuses 29

Chapter 3 Kafka's The Trial: From the Jew as Pariah to Joseph K. as Universal Victim 49

Chapter 4 The Religion of Liberty and the Parable Before the Law (1915) 63

Chapter 5 The Castle: Bureaucratic Despotism and Voluntary Servitude 81

Chapter 6 Anecdotal Digression: Was Kafka a Realist? 97

Chapter 7 The "Kafkaesque" Situation 105.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on information from the publisher.

ISBN:

9780472053094

0472053094

9780472073092

0472073095

9780472121793

Publisher Number:

10.3998/mpub.8858335

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.