Biography and amazing work of Franz Kafka. Franz Kafka - Biography - current and creative path Novels and short fiction

Franz Kafka (Anshel; Franz Kafka; 1883, Prague, - 1924, Kirling, near Vienna, buried in Prague), Austrian writer.

Born into a German-speaking Jewish family of a haberdasher merchant. In 1906 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Prague. In 1908–19 (formally until 1922) served in an insurance company. He appeared in print in 1908. Realizing himself as a professional writer, he became close to the so-called Prague Circle of Expressionist Writers (O. Baum, 1883–1941; M. Brod; F. Welch; F. Werfel; P. Leppin, 1878–1945; L. Perutz, 1884-1957; W. Haas, 1891-1973; F. Janowitz, 1892-1917, etc.), mostly German-speaking Jews.

Although during the life of Kafka, only a few of his stories were published in magazines and came out in separate editions (Observation, 1913; Sentence and Stoker, 1913; Metamorphosis, 1916; Country Doctor, 1919; Hunger, 1924 ), he already in 1915 received one of the significant literary prizes in Germany - named after T. Fontane. Dying, Kafka bequeathed to burn his manuscripts and not to republish published works. However, M. Brod, Kafka's friend and executor, realizing the outstanding significance of his work, published in 1925–26. novels "Trial", "Castle", "America" ​​(the last two were not completed), in 1931 - a collection of unpublished stories "On the Construction of the Chinese Wall", in 1935 - collected works (including diaries), in 1958 - letters.

The main theme of Kafka is the boundless loneliness and defenselessness of a person in the face of hostile and incomprehensible powerful forces for him. Kafka's narrative style is characterized by the plausibility of details, episodes, thoughts and behavior of individuals appearing in extraordinary, absurd circumstances and collisions. A somewhat archaic language, a strict style of "business" prose, striking at the same time with melody, serves to depict nightmarish, fantastic situations. A calm, restrained description of incredible events creates a special inner sense of tension in the story. The images and collisions of Kafka's works embody the tragic doom of a "little" person in a collision with the nightmarish alogism of life. Kafka's heroes are devoid of individuality and act as the embodiment of some abstract ideas. They operate in an environment that, despite the details of the family life of the middle class of imperial Austria-Hungary, as well as the general features of its state system, accurately noted by the author, is free from concreteness and acquires the properties of a non-historical artistic time of the parable. The peculiar philosophical prose of Kafka, combining the symbolism of abstract images, fantasy and grotesque with the imaginary objectivity of a deliberately protocol narrative, and the deep subtext and internal monologues, reinforced by elements of psychoanalysis, with the conditionality of the situation, the novelization techniques of the novel and sometimes the expansion of the parable (parabola) to its scale, is essential enriched the poetics of the 20th century.

Written under the influence of Ch. Dickens, Kafka's first novel about a young emigrant in a world alien to him - "Missing" (1912; named by M. Brod when publishing "America") - is distinguished by a detailed description of the external coloring of the American way of life, familiar to the author only from stories of friends and books. However, already in this novel, narrative everyday life is mixed with a somnambulistic, fantastic beginning, which, like everywhere with Kafka, acquires the features of everyday life. Artistically more mature and more tense in mood, the novel The Trial (1914) is a story about a bank clerk Josef K., who suddenly finds out that he is subject to trial and must wait for the verdict. His attempts to find out his guilt, to defend himself, or at least to find out who his judges are, are fruitless - he is condemned and executed. In The Castle (1914–22), the narrative atmosphere is even darker. The action boils down to the futile efforts of a stranger, a certain land surveyor K., to get into the castle, personifying a higher power.

Complicated, largely encrypted works of Kafka, some researchers explain his biography, finding the key to understanding his personality and works in his diaries and letters. Representatives of this psychoanalytic school see in Kafka's works only a reflection of his personal fate, and most importantly, a lifelong conflict with a despotic father, Kafka's painful position in the family, from which he did not find understanding and support. Kafka himself, in his unpublished Letter to a Father (1919), stated: “My writings were about you, I set forth my complaints there, which I could not pour out on your chest.” This letter, which is a brilliant example of psychoanalysis, in which Kafka defended his right to follow his vocation, became a significant phenomenon in world literature. Considering literary creativity the only possible way of existence for himself, Kafka was also burdened by the service in the accident insurance office. For many years he suffered from insomnia and migraines, and in 1917 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis (Kafka spent the last years of his life in sanatoriums and boarding houses). The impossibility for Kafka to combine the preoccupation with creativity with a high idea of ​​the duty of a family man, self-doubt, fear of responsibility, failure, ridicule of his father were the main reasons for the termination of his engagements with Felicia Bauer and Yulia Voritsek. His great love for Milena Esenskaya-Pollak, the first translator of his works into Czech, did not end in marriage either.

Based on the facts of Kafka's dim biography, psychoanalysts consider his works only as a "romanized autobiography." Thus, the fatal loneliness of his heroes, due, for example, to the tragic metamorphosis of a man into a huge insect in The Metamorphosis or the position of the accused in The Trial, the stranger in The Castle, the restless emigrant in America, reflected only the boundless loneliness of Kafka in family. The famous parable "At the gates of the law" (included in the "Trial") is interpreted as a reflection of Kafka's childhood memories, expelled by his father at night and standing in front of a locked door; The "trial" allegedly reflects the feeling of guilt that forced Kafka to terminate the marriage obligations, or is a punishment for lovelessness as a violation of the moral law; “Sentence” and “Transformation” are a response to Kafka’s clash with his father, the recognition of his guilt in estrangement from the family, etc. However, even such moments as Kafka’s interest in social problems are left aside with this approach (he drafted a “commune » - communities of free workers); its successive connection with E. T. A. Hoffmann, N. Gogol, F. Dostoevsky, S. Kierkegaard (who anticipated Kafka's idea of ​​the absolute helplessness of man), with the centuries-old tradition of the Jewish parable, with a place in the current literary process, etc. Representatives of the sociological school pointed out the incompleteness of the biographical-Freudian approach to the interpretation of Kafka's work, noting that Kafka's symbolic world is strikingly reminiscent of modernity. They interpret Kafka's work as a reflection in a fantastic form of real social contradictions, as a symbol of the tragic loneliness of a person in an unsettled world. Some see Kafka as a visionary, as if predicting (especially in the story "In the penal colony"; written in 1914, published in 1919) a fascist nightmare, which he noted already in the 1930s. B. Brecht (all Kafka's sisters, like M. Yesenskaya, died in Nazi concentration camps). In this regard, Kafka's assessment of mass revolutionary movements (he was talking about the revolution in Russia) is also interesting, the results of which, in his opinion, will be nullified "by the domination of the new bureaucracy and the emergence of a new Napoleon Bonaparte."

Most interpreters see in Kafka's works a symbolic representation of the religious situation of modern man. However, these interpretations range from attributing existentialist nihilism to Kafka to attributing to him a belief in Divine salvation. Representatives of the so-called mythological school, for example, believe that the mythologization of everyday prose, with its illogicality and inconsistency with common sense, is brought to extraordinary consistency in Kafka's work, where the background forms a "travesty of Jewish myth" (in the sense of biblical and Talmudic / see Talmud / legends) . There is a point of view according to which the alienation of Kafka's heroes from their environment, which in his eyes acquires the meaning of a universal law, symbolically reflects the isolation of the Jew in the world. The heroes of Kafka are the Jews of Galut with their philosophy of fear, hopelessness and disorder, a premonition of impending cataclysms, and his work expresses the attitude of a representative of the religious and social ghetto, aggravated by the feeling of a German-Jewish outcast in Slavic Prague. M. Brod believes that Kafka is mainly talking not about a person and society, but about a person and God, and “Process” and “Law” are two hypostases of God in Judaism: Justice (middat X a-din) and Mercy (middat X a-rahamim). M. Brod also believed that the influence of Jewish religious literature (primarily the Talmud) affected the controversy (internal confrontation) of Kafka's heroes. According to the concept of researchers who consider Kafka's work in the light of his Jewishness, he sees the way to salvation for himself and his heroes in the constant striving for improvement, which brings him closer to Truth, Law, God. Consciousness of the greatness of the Jewish tradition and despair at the impossibility of finding a foothold in it Kafka expressed in the story "Studies of a Dog" (Russian translation - the Menorah magazine, No. 5, 1974, Jer.): "Terrible visions of our forefathers rose before me. ... I bow to their knowledge, which they drew from sources already forgotten by us.

According to Kafka, "literary creativity is always only an expedition in search of Truth." Finding the Truth, his hero will find a way to the community of people. Kafka wrote about "happiness to be together with people".

Heroes of Kafka fail in their attempts to break through loneliness: land surveyor K. remains a stranger in the village, where he found an unstable shelter. However, the castle is a certain higher goal that still exists. The villager from the parable “At the gates of the Law” is condemned to die while waiting for permission to enter them, but before death he sees a light flickering in the distance. In the parable “How the Chinese Wall Was Built” more and more new generations are building a wall, but in the very desire to build there is hope: “until they stop rising, the steps do not end.” In Kafka's last short story "The Singer Josephine, or the Mouse People" (the prototype of Josephine's image was a native of Eretz-Israel, Pua Ben-Tuwim-Mitchell, who taught Kafka Hebrew), where the Jewish people are easily guessed in the industrious, persistent mouse people, the wise mouse says: " We do not capitulate unconditionally to anyone ... the people continue to go their own way. Thus, despite the acute sense of the tragedy of life, this hope looming before the heroes does not give the right to consider Kafka a hopeless pessimist. He wrote: "Man cannot live without faith in something indestructible in himself." This indestructible is his inner world. Kafka is a poet of sympathy and compassion. Condemning selfishness and sympathizing with the suffering person, he declared: "We must take upon ourselves all the suffering that surrounds us."

The fate of Jewry has always worried Kafka. His father's formal, dry approach to religion, the soulless, automatic rituals observed only on holidays, pushed Kafka away from traditional Judaism. Like most of the assimilated Prague Jews, Kafka was only vaguely aware of his Jewishness in his youth. Although his friends M. Brod and G. Bergman introduced him to the ideas of Zionism, and in 1909–11. he listened to lectures on Jewishness by M. Buber (who influenced him and other Prague expressionists) at the Bar-Kochba student club in Prague, but the tour of the Jewish troupe from Galicia (1911) served as an impetus for awakening interest in the life of Jews, especially Eastern European ) and friendship with the actor Itzhak Loewy, who introduced Kafka to the problems of Jewish literary life in Warsaw in those years. Kafka enthusiastically read the history of literature in Yiddish, made a presentation on the Yiddish language, studied Hebrew, and studied the Torah. I. M. Langer, who taught Kafka Hebrew, introduced him to Hasidism. At the end of his life, Kafka becomes close to the ideas of Zionism and takes part in the work of the Jewish People's House (Berlin), cherishes the dream of moving to Eretz-Israel with a friend of the last year of his life, Dora Dimant, however, he considers himself insufficiently cleansed spiritually and prepared for such a step. It is characteristic that Kafka published his early works in the assimilation journal Bohemia, and the last in the Berlin Zionist publishing house Di Schmide. During his lifetime and in the first decade after Kafka's death, only a narrow circle of connoisseurs was familiar with his work. But with the advent of Nazism to power in Germany, during the Second World War and especially after it, Kafka's work gained international fame. The influence of Kafka's creative method, characteristic of the modernist literature of the 20th century, was experienced to varying degrees by T. Mann

The epithet "Kafkaesque" has entered many languages ​​of the world to denote the situations and feelings of a person who has fallen into the labyrinth of grotesque nightmares of life.

Franz Kafka was one of the most important German writers of the twentieth century. He spent his entire life in his hometown of Prague, the capital of Bohemia. Kafka is famous for his grotesque stories and novels, many of which were only published posthumously, edited by his close friend Max Brod. Kafka's works, belonging to various literary periods, are invariably unique and popular with a wide range of readers.

Childhood

Franz Kafka was born on June 3, 1883 in a family of German-speaking Ashkenazi Jews living in the ghetto in the area of ​​present-day Prague. He was the first child in the family of Herman and his wife Julia, née Loewy.

His father, strong and loud-voiced, was the fourth child of Jacob Kafka, a butcher who came to Prague from Oseka, a Jewish village in southern Bohemia. After working briefly as a sales representative, he established himself as an independent retailer of men's and women's haberdashery and accessories. About 15 people were involved in the case, and the office used a “tick” sign as a logo, embodying the meaning of a surname in Czech. Kafka's mother was the daughter of Jacob Loewy, a prosperous brewer from Poděbrady, and was an educated woman.

Franz was the eldest of six children. He had two younger brothers who died in infancy and three younger sisters: Gabrielle, Valerie and Ottla. During the week, during working hours, both parents were absent from the house. His mother helped manage her husband's business and worked 12-hour days. The children were largely raised by a succession of governesses and servants. The cordial mother was a great outlet for the children, but Franz's tendency to be lonely and withdrawn remained for many years. It was from his mother that he inherited his sensitivity and dreaminess. In his literary works, Kafka transformed the complete lack of communication and understanding in the relationship between authoritative people and the little man.

He grew up in a Jewish German-speaking community, rarely interacting with the Czech-speaking citizens of Prague. Despite this, during his life he gained a deep knowledge of the Czech language and an understanding of literature. The guy had a serious character and was a little talkative. He spoke in a calm and quiet voice and wore mostly dark suits and sometimes a black round hat. He tried not to show his emotions in public. Moreover, the unbelieving Kafka was an outsider even in the Jewish community. Jewish identity was marked by attending a bar mitzvah at age 13 and attending synagogue with her father four times a year.

Craving for writing originated in childhood. For the birthdays of his parents, he composed small plays that his younger sisters put on at home, while he himself acted as a director of home plays. He was an avid reader.

Kafka and his father

Father Herman wanted to raise his children in accordance with his ideals. He left them little room for personal development, and all social contacts of adolescents were strictly controlled. Especially the father controlled Franz and his younger sister Ottla. Despite the friendly and peace-making nature of the mother, conflicts periodically arose between Herman and the children.

In his letters, diaries and prose, the writer repeatedly addressed the topic of relationships with his father. Herman, physically strong, energetic, strong-willed self-satisfied choleric, served as a kind of catalyst for his children. The shy Franz became increasingly anxious, which in turn made him the target of his father's ridicule. He never managed to break this vicious circle until the end of his days.

In 1919, Kafka wrote "Letter to my father", which describes his conflicting relationship with Hermann on more than a hundred pages. He wholeheartedly strives for reconciliation, but believes that this is impossible. All that remains is the hope of peaceful coexistence. His works "Metamorphosis" and "Judgment" characterize the powerful figures of the fathers.

Years of formation

From 1889 Kafka attended the boys' primary school on Masna Street. He received his secondary education at the German State Gymnasium on the Old Town Square, where he studied from 1893 to 1901. It was an eight-year academic secondary school taught in German, located in the Keene Palace in the Old Town. Among his first friends were the future art historian Oscar Pollak and the poet, translator and journalist Rudolf Illovi. The family lived at that time on Celetna Street. As a teenager, he told his school friend that he would become a writer. From that time began his first literary attempts.

Having passed the school final exams, Franz was admitted to the University of Prague, founded by Charles Ferdinand in 1348. The training took place between 1901 and 1906. He started studying chemistry, after a couple of weeks he switched to German literature and philosophy, but moved to a faculty specializing in the study of law in the second semester. This was a compromise between his father's wishes for his son to get a profession in order to build a successful career and a longer period of study, which gave Kafka additional time for research and study of art history. During his studies, he was an active participant in student life, which organized many public literary readings and other events. At the end of his first year of study, he met Max Brod, who became his close friend throughout his life, and the journalist Felix Welch, who also studied law. The students were brought together by a boundless love of reading and a common worldview. This period included a deep study of the works of Plato, Goethe, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Grillparzer and Kleist. Czech literature was of particular interest.

In June 1906, he received a complete higher education, becoming a doctor of jurisprudence at the age of 23. In October, he began his career with a mandatory unpaid law practice for graduates and worked for a year as a civil servant. For a total of 14 years he worked as a lawyer at the Workers' Accident Insurance Institute in the Czech Kingdom.

The beginning of literary activity

Franz was frustrated by the work schedule from 8 am to 6 pm, as it was extremely difficult to combine the work associated with routine processing and investigating the compensation claims of injured workers with the necessary concentration when working on works. In parallel, Kafka worked on his stories. Together with their friends Max Brod and Felix Welch, they called themselves the "close circle of Prague". Being at the same time a hardworking and diligent worker, Kafka sometimes left the office early to indulge in writing. At 24 Kafka published his first writings in a magazine, after which the stories were published as a book called Meditations.

The most productive years for the writer were the years after graduation. His works were written in the evenings after work or at night. This is how the novel "Wedding Preparations in the Country" was born.

Kafka spent his holidays in northern Italy on Lake Garda with Max and Otto Brod. On September 29, the Prague daily Bohemia published a short story called "Airplanes in Brescia". In 1910, he began to keep diary entries and intensively study Judaism, Zionism, Jewish literature and his own Jewish roots, mastered Hebrew.

Two years later, he began work on the novel "Missing" and wrote the first chapters of it. The work became famous with the light hand of Max Brod, under the name "America". In the same year, he was writing a novel and a collection of 18 short stories. In one night, in 1912, his first long story "The Sentence" was written. The story contains all the elements related to the inner world of the author, in which a bedridden authoritarian domineering father condemns his principled son. His next work, completed in May 1913, was the story "The Stoker", later included in his novel The Missing Man and awarded the Theodore Fontane Literary Prize in 1915, his first public recognition during his lifetime.

If not for the efforts of his friend Brod, the world would not have known the best novels of Kafka. While editing them after the author's death, Max ignored his friend's request to destroy all his unpublished writings upon death.

So, thanks to Brod, such works as:

• "America";
• "Process";
• "Lock".

mature years

Kafka never married. According to the memoirs of his friend, he was overwhelmed by sexual desire, but the fear of intimate failures prevented personal relationships. He actively visited brothels and was interested in pornography. Close relationships in his life were with several women.

On August 13, 1912, Kafka met Felice Bauer, a distant relative of Brod, who was passing through Prague. Their relationship lasted for five years, interspersed with active correspondence, twice during this period they approached the turn of marriage. The marriage was not destined to happen, and they separated in 1917.

In the same year, Kafka showed the first symptoms of tuberculosis. His family supported him during his relapses. He moved in with his sister Ottla in northwestern Bohemia and devoted time to studying Kierkegaard's work. He was afraid of possible physical limitations caused by illness, he impressed others with a neat and strict appearance, quiet and calm reactions, intelligence and specific humor. He begins to write down aphorisms. They were later published in the book Reflections on Sin, Suffering, Hope, and the True Path.

In October 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell and Czechoslovakia was proclaimed. Czech became the official language in the capital. The year also brought personal upheavals to the author. Kafka fell ill with Spanish flu. The subsequent physical weakness negatively affects the writer's psyche. Kafka did not trust doctors. He was a supporter of naturopathy. Non-specific symptoms such as insomnia, headaches, heart problems or weight loss, which he suffered, he attributed to psychosomatics.

At this time, a new relationship was born with Juliek Vohrycek, who came from a modest merchant family. This connection greatly upset his father, which prompted Franz to write the appeal "Letter to my father." Young people failed to rent housing. Kafka saw this as a sign and left. In the spring of 1922, he wrote The Hungry Painter, and in the summer, Studies on a Dog. The following passionate relationship with the translator and journalist Milena Yesenskaya failed. Despite the unhappy marriage of her beloved, she was not ready to leave her husband. In 1923 he broke up with her. Between 1920 and 1922, his health deteriorated and Franz was forced to leave his job.

In 1923, Kafka, while recovering his health on the Baltic Sea, met kindergarten teacher Dora Diamant, a twenty-five-year-old daughter of Polish Jews. Dora, who spoke Yiddish and Hebrew, fascinated the writer. I was struck by the natural and modest demeanor of her behavior with fairly mature views. Kafka left Prague at the end of July 1923 and moved to Berlin-Steglitz, where he wrote his last, comparatively happy story, The Little Woman. Dora cared for her lover in such a way that at the end of his life, he finally managed to free himself from the influence of the family. It was in a pair with her that he developed an interest in the Talmud. Kafka wrote his last work, Josephine, or the Mouse People, which was included in the collection Hunger. However, his health is rapidly deteriorating. He returned to Prague three months before his death on 3 June 1924. In April, he goes to a sanatorium, where the diagnosis is confirmed. He goes to the University Hospital of Vienna for treatment, then to the sanatorium of Dr. Hugo Hoffmann in Klosterneuburg. Dora Diamant takes care of and supports Kafka in every possible way, who is rapidly losing weight, swallowing food with difficulty and cannot speak. On June 3, around noon, Kafka died. The writer was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Prague.

Franz Kafka- one of the main German-speaking writers of the 20th century, most of whose works were published posthumously. His works, permeated with absurdity and fear of the outside world and the highest authority, capable of evoking corresponding disturbing feelings in the reader, are a unique phenomenon in world literature.

Kafka was born on July 3, 1883 into a Jewish family living in the Josefov district, the former Jewish ghetto of Prague (the Czech Republic at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). His father, Herman (Genykh) Kafka, came from a Czech-speaking Jewish community in South Bohemia, since 1882 he was a haberdashery wholesaler. The writer's mother - Julia Kafka (nee Etl Levy), the daughter of a wealthy brewer - preferred the German language. Kafka himself wrote in German, although he knew Czech just as well. He also had a good command of French, and among the four people whom the writer, “not pretending to be compared with them in strength and reason,” felt “his blood brothers,” was the French writer Gustave Flaubert.

The other three are Franz Grillparzer, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Heinrich von Kleist. Although a Jew, Kafka knew almost no Yiddish and began to show interest in the traditional culture of Eastern European Jews only at the age of twenty under the influence of Jewish theater troupes touring in Prague; interest in the study of Hebrew arose only towards the end of his life.

Kafka had two younger brothers and three younger sisters. Both brothers, before reaching the age of two, died before Kafka was 6 years old. The sisters were named Elli, Valli and Ottla (all three died during World War II in Nazi concentration camps in Poland). Between 1889 and 1893 Kafka attended elementary school, and then gymnasium, which he graduated in 1901 with a matriculation exam. After graduating from Charles University in Prague, he received a doctorate in law (Professor Alfred Weber was Kafka's dissertation supervisor), and then entered the service of an official in the insurance department, where he worked in modest positions until his premature retirement in 1922 due to illness. Work for the writer was a secondary and burdensome occupation: in diaries and letters, he confesses his hatred for his boss, colleagues and clients. Literature has always been in the foreground, "justifying its entire existence."

Asceticism, self-doubt, self-condemnation and a painful perception of the world around - all these qualities of the writer are well documented in his letters and diaries, and especially in the "Letter to the Father" - a valuable introspection in the relationship between father and son. Due to an early break with his parents, Kafka was forced to lead a very modest lifestyle and often change his home, which left an imprint on his attitude towards Prague itself and its inhabitants. Chronic diseases plagued him; in addition to tuberculosis, he suffered from migraines, insomnia, constipation, impotence, boils and other diseases. He tried to counteract all this in naturopathic ways, such as a vegetarian diet, regular exercise, and drinking large amounts of unpasteurized cow's milk. As a schoolboy, he took an active part in organizing literary and social meetings, made efforts to organize and promote theatrical performances, despite the misgivings even from his closest friends, such as Max Brod, who usually supported him in everything else, and contrary to his own fear of being perceived as repulsive both physically and mentally. Kafka made an impression on those around him with his boyish, neat, strict appearance, calm and imperturbable behavior, his intelligence and unusual sense of humor.

Kafka's relationship with his despotic father is an important component of his work, which also resulted in the failure of the writer as a family man. Between 1912 and 1917 he courted the Berlin girl Felicia Bauer, to whom he was twice engaged and twice canceled the engagement. Communicating with her mainly through letters, Kafka created her image, which did not correspond to reality at all. And in fact they were very different people, as is clear from their correspondence. The second bride of Kafka was Yulia Vokhrytsek, but the engagement was again soon terminated. In the early 1920s he had a love relationship with a married Czech journalist, writer and translator of his works - Milena Yesenska. In 1923, Kafka moved to Berlin with nineteen-year-old Dora Dimant for a few months, hoping to distance himself from family influence and concentrate on writing; then he returned to Prague. Health at this time was deteriorating, and on June 3, 1924, Kafka died in a sanatorium near Vienna, probably from exhaustion (a sore throat prevented him from eating, and in those days intravenous therapy was not developed to feed him artificially). The body was transported to Prague, where it was buried on June 11, 1924 at the New Jewish Cemetery in the Strasnice district, in a common family grave.

During his lifetime, Kafka published only a few short stories, which made up a very small proportion of his work, and his work attracted little attention until his novels were published posthumously. Before his death, he instructed his friend and literary executor - Max Brod - to burn, without exception, everything he wrote (except, perhaps, some copies of works that the owners could keep for themselves, but not republish them). His beloved Dora Dimant did destroy the manuscripts she possessed (although not all), but Max Brod did not obey the will of the deceased and published most of his works, which soon began to attract attention. All of his published work, except for a few Czech-language letters to Milena Jesenskaya, was written in German.

Franz Kafka (German Franz Kafka, July 3, 1883, Prague, Austria-Hungary - June 3, 1924, Klosterneuburg, First Austrian Republic) is one of the outstanding German-language writers of the 20th century, most of whose works were published posthumously. His works, permeated with absurdity and fear of the outside world and the highest authority, capable of evoking corresponding disturbing feelings in the reader, are a unique phenomenon in world literature. Kafka was born on July 3, 1883 to a Jewish family in the Josefov district, the former Jewish ghetto of Prague (now the Czech Republic, at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). His father, Herman (Genykh) Kafka (1852-1931), came from a Czech-speaking Jewish community in South Bohemia, since 1882 he was a haberdashery wholesaler. The surname "Kafka" is of Czech origin (kavka literally means "jackdaw"). Hermann Kafka's signature envelopes, which Franz often used for letters, feature this bird with a quivering tail as an emblem. The writer's mother, Julia Kafka (née Etl Levy) (1856-1934), the daughter of a wealthy brewer, preferred German. Kafka himself wrote in German, although he knew Czech just as well. He was also fluent in French, and among the five people whom the writer, “not pretending to be compared with them in strength and reason,” felt “his blood brothers,” was the French writer Gustave Flaubert. The other four are Franz Grillparzer, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Heinrich von Kleist and Nikolai Gogol. Although a Jew, Kafka knew almost no Yiddish and began to show interest in the traditional culture of Eastern European Jews only at the age of twenty under the influence of Jewish theater troupes touring in Prague; interest in the study of Hebrew arose only towards the end of his life. In 1923, Kafka, together with the nineteen-year-old Dora Dimant, moved to Berlin for several months in the hope of moving away from the influence of the family and concentrating on writing; then he returned to Prague. At that time, his health was deteriorating: due to the aggravated tuberculosis of the larynx, he experienced severe pain and could not eat. On June 3, 1924, Kafka died in a sanatorium near Vienna. The cause of death was probably exhaustion. The body was transported to Prague, where it was buried on June 11, 1924 at the New Jewish Cemetery in the Strasnice district, in a common family grave.

Life

Kafka was born on July 3, 1883 into a Jewish family living in the Josefov district, the former Jewish ghetto of Prague (Czech Republic, at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). His father, Herman (Genykh) Kafka (-), came from a Czech-speaking Jewish community in South Bohemia, from the city he was a haberdashery wholesaler. The surname "Kafka" is of Czech origin (kavka literally means "jackdaw"). Herman Kafka's trademark envelopes, which Franz often used for letters, feature this bird with a trembling tail as an emblem. The writer's mother - Julia Kafka (née Etl Levy) (-), the daughter of a wealthy brewer - preferred the German language. Kafka himself wrote in German, although he also knew Czech very well. He also spoke French well, and among the four people whom the writer, “not pretending to be compared with them in strength and reason,” felt “his blood brothers,” was the French writer Gustave Flaubert. The other three are Franz Grillparzer, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Heinrich von Kleist. Although a Jew, Kafka knew almost no Yiddish and began to show interest in the traditional culture of Eastern European Jews only at the age of twenty under the influence of Jewish theater troupes touring in Prague; interest in the study of Hebrew arose only towards the end of his life.

Kafka had two younger brothers and three younger sisters. Both brothers, before reaching the age of two, died before Kafka was 6 years old. The sisters were named Elli, Valli and Ottla (all three died during World War II in Nazi concentration camps in Poland). In the period from to Kafka attended elementary school (Deutsche Knabenschule), and then gymnasium, which he graduated in 1901 with a matriculation exam. After graduating from the Prague Charles University, he received a doctorate in law (Professor Alfred Weber was Kafka's supervisor of the dissertation), and then he entered the service of an official in the insurance department, where he worked in modest positions until prematurely - due to illness - retirement in the city of Work for the writer was a secondary and burdensome occupation: in diaries and letters, he confesses his hatred for his boss, colleagues and clients. Literature has always been in the foreground, "justifying its entire existence." After a pulmonary hemorrhage, a long tuberculosis ensued, from which the writer died on June 3, 1924 in a sanatorium near Vienna.

Franz Kafka Museum in Prague

Kafka in cinema

• "The Wonderful Life of Franz Kafka" ("Franz Kafka's 'It's a Wonderful Life'", UK, ) Blend "Transformations" Franz Kafka with "This Wonderful Life" Frank Capra. Academy Award" (). Director: Peter Capaldi Cast: Kafka: Richard E. Grant
• "Singer Josephine and the Mouse People"(Ukraine-Germany, ) Director: S. Masloboyshchikov
• "Kafka" (Kafka, USA, ) A semi-biographical film about Kafka, whose plot takes him through many of his own works. Director: Steven Soderbergh. Kafka: Jeremy Irons
• "Lock " / Das Schloss(Austria, 1997) Director: Michael Haneke / Michael Haneke /, in the role of C. Ulrich Mühe
• "Lock"(Germany, ) Director: Rudolf Noelte, as C. Maximilian Schell
• "Lock"(Georgia, 1990) Director: Dato Janelidze as C. Karl-Heinz Becker
• "Lock "(Russia-Germany-France,) Director: A. Balabanov, in the role of K. Nikolai Stotsky
• "The Transformation of Mr. Franz Kafka" Directed by: Carlos Atanes, 1993.
• "Process " ("The Trial", Germany-Italy-France, ) Director Orson Welles considered it his most successful film. Josef K. - Anthony Perkins
• "Process " ("The Trial", Great Britain, ) Director: David Hugh Jones, in the role of Josef K. - Kyle MacLachlan, in the role of a priest - Anthony Hopkins, in the role of artist Tittorelli - Alfred Molina. The screenplay for the film was written by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter.
• "Class Relations"(Germany, 1983) Directed by Jean-Marie Straub and Daniel Huye. Based on the novel "America (Missing)"
• "America"(Czech Republic, 1994) Director: Vladimir Michalek
• Franz Kafka's country doctor (カ田舎医者 (jap. Kafuka inaka isya ?) ("Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor"), Japan, , animation) Director: Yamamura Koji

The idea of ​​the story "The Metamorphosis" has been used in cinema many times:

• "Transformation"(Valery Fokina, starring Evgeny Mironov)
• "The Transformation of Mr. Sams" ("The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa" Carolyn Leaf, 1977)

Bibliography

Kafka himself published four collections - "Contemplation", "Country Doctor", "Kara" And "Hunger", and "Fireman"- the first chapter of the novel "America" ("Missing") and several other short essays. However, his main creations are novels. "America" (1911-1916), "Process"(1914-1918) and "Lock"(1921-1922) - remained incomplete to varying degrees and saw the light after the death of the author and against his last will: Kafka unequivocally bequeathed to destroy everything he wrote to his friend Max Brod.

Novels and short fiction

• "Description of a Struggle"("Beschreibung eines Kampfes", -);
• "Wedding Preparations in the Village"("Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande", -);
• "Conversation with the Prayer"("Gespräch mit dem Beter", );
• "Conversation with a drunk"("Gespräch mit dem Betrunkenen", );
• "Airplanes in Brescia"("Die Airplane in Brescia", ), feuilleton;
• "Women's Prayer Book"("Ein Damenbrevier", );
• "First long trip by rail"(“Die erste lange Eisenbahnfahrt”, );
• In collaboration with Max Brod: "Richard and Samuel: a short journey through Central Europe"("Richard und Samuel - Eine kleine Reise durch mitteleuropäische Gegenden");
• "Big Noise"("Großer Lärm", );
• "Before the law"("Vor dem Gesetz", ), a parable subsequently included in the novel "The Trial" (chapter 9, "In the Cathedral");
• "Erinnerungen an die Kaldabahn" ( , fragment from the diary);
• "School teacher" ("Giant Mole") ("Der Dorfschullehrer or Der Riesenmaulwurf", -);
• "Blumfeld, the old bachelor"("Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle", );
• "Crypt Keeper"("Der Gruftwächter", -), the only play written by Kafka;
• "Hunter Gracchus"("Der Jäger Gracchus", );
• How was the Chinese wall built?("Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer", );
• "Murder"("Der Mord", ), the story was subsequently revised and included in the collection "Country Doctor" under the title "Brothericide";
• "Riding the Bucket"("Der Kübelreiter", );
• "In our synagogue"("In unserer Synagoge", );
• "Fireman"("Der Heizer"), later - the first chapter of the novel "America" ​​("Missing");
• "In the attic"("Auf dem Dachboden");
• "One Dog Studies"(“Forschungen eines Hundes”, );
• "Nora"("Der Bau", -);
• "He. Recordings of 1920"("Er. Aufzeichnungen aus dem Jahre 1920", ), fragments;
• "To the series" He ""("Zu der Reihe "Er"", );

Collection "Kara" ("Strafen", )

• "Sentence"("Das Urteil", September 22-23);
• "Transformation"("Die Verwandlung", November-December);
• "In the penitentiary"("In der Strafkolonie", October).

Collection "Contemplation" ("Betrachtung", )

• "Children on the road"("Kinder auf der Landstrasse", ), detailed draft notes for the short story "Description of a Struggle";
• "Unveiled Rogue"("Entlarvung eines Bauernfängers", );
• "Sudden Walk"("Der plötzliche Spaziergang", ), version of the diary entry dated January 5, 1912;
• "Solutions"("Entschlüsse", ), version of the diary entry of February 5, 1912;
• "Walking in the mountains"("Der Ausflug ins Gebirge", );
• "Bachelor's Woe"("Das Unglück des Junggesellen", );
• "Merchant"("Der Kaufmann", );
• "Absently looking out the window"("Zerstreutes Hinausschaun", );
• "Way home"("Der Nachhauseweg", );
• "Running by"("Die Vorüberlaufenden", );
• "Passenger"("Der Fahrgast", );
• "Dresses"("Kleider", ), sketch for the novella "Description of a Struggle";
• "Refusal"("Die Abweisung", );
• "Riders to Reflection"(“Zum Nachdenken für Herrenreiter”, );
• "Window to the street"("Das Gassenfenster", );
• "Desire to Become an Indian"("Wunsch, Indianer zu werden", );
• "Trees"("Die Bäume", ); sketch for the short story "Description of a Struggle";
• "Yearning"("Unglücklichsein", ).

Collection "Country Doctor" ("Ein Landarzt", )

• "The New Lawyer"("Der Neue Advokat", );
• "Country Doctor"("Ein Landarzt", );
• "At the gallery"("Auf der Galerie", );
• "Old Record"("Ein altes Blatt", );
• "Jackals and Arabs"("Schakale und Araber", );
• "Visit to the mine"("Ein Besuch im Bergwerk", );
• "Neighbor Village"(“Das nächste Dorf”,);
• "Imperial Message"(“Eine kaiserliche Botschaft”,), later the story became part of the short story “How the Chinese Wall was Built”;
• "Care of the head of the family"("Die Sorge des Hasvaters",);
• "Eleven Sons"("Elf Söhne", );
• "Fratricide"("Ein Brudermord", );
• "Dream"("Ein Traum", ), a parallel with the novel "The Trial";
• "Report for the Academy"("Ein Bericht für eine Akademie", ).

Collection "Hunger" ("Ein Hungerkünstler", )

• "First grief"("Ersters Leid", );
• "Small woman"("Eine kleine Frau", );
• "Hunger"("Ein Hungerkünstler", );
• Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse People("Josephine, die Sängerin, oder Das Volk der Mäuse", -);

Small prose

• "Bridge"("Die Brücke", -)
• "Knock on the Gate"("Der Schlag ans Hoftor", );
• "Neighbour"("Der Nachbar", );
• "Hybrid"("Eine Kreuzung", );
• "Appeal"("Der Aufruf", );
• "New Lamps"("Neue Lampen", );
• "Rail Passengers"("Im Tunnel", );
• "Ordinary Story"(“Eine alltägliche Verwirrung”, );
• "The Truth About Sancho Panza"(“Die Wahrheit über Sancho Pansa”, );
• "Silence of the Sirens"(“Das Schweigen der Sirenen”, );
• "Commonwealth of scoundrels" ("Eine Gemeinschaft von Schurken",);
• "Prometheus"("Prometheus", );
• "Homecoming"("Heimkehr", );
• "City coat of arms"("Das Stadtwappen", );
• "Poseidon"("Poseidon", );
• "Commonwealth"("Gemeinschaft", );
• "Night" ("Nachts",);
• "Rejected Application"("Die Abweisung", );
• "On the issue of laws"("Zur Frage der Gesetze", );
• "Recruitment" ("Die Truppenaushebung",);
• "Exam"("Die Prüfung", );
• "Kite" ("Der Geier",);
• "Helmsman" ("Der Steuermann",);
• "Top"("Der Kreisel", );
• "Basenka"("Kleine Fabel", );
• "Departure"("Der Aufbruch", );
• "Defenders"("Fürsprecher", );
• "Married couple"("Das Ehepaar", );
• "Commentary (do not hope!)"("Commentar - Gibs auf!", );
• "About parables"("Von den Gleichnissen", ).

Novels

• "Process "(“Der Prozeß”, -), including the parable “Before the law”;
• "America" ​​("Missing")("Amerika" ("Der Verschollene"), -), including the story "Stoker" as the first chapter.

Letters

• Letters to Felice Bauer (Briefe an Felice, 1912-1916);
• Letters to Greta Bloch (1913-1914);
• Letters to Milena Yesenskaya (Briefe an Milena);
• Letters to Max Brod (Briefe an Max Brod);
• Letter to father (November 1919);
• Letters to Ottla and other family members (Briefe an Ottla und die Familie);
• Letters to parents from 1922 to 1924 (Briefe an die Eltern aus den Jahren 1922-1924);
• Other letters (including to Robert Klopstock, Oscar Pollack, etc.);

Diaries (Tagebucher)

• 1910. July - December;
• 1911. January - December;
• 1911-1912. Travel diaries written while traveling in Switzerland, France and Germany;
• 1912. January - September;
• 1913. February - December;
• 1914. January - December;
• 1915. January - May, September - December;
• 1916. April - October;
• 1917. July - October;
• 1919. June - December;
• 1920. January;
• 1921. October - December;
• 1922. January - December;
• 1923. June.

Notebooks in-octavo

8 workbooks of Franz Kafka (- gg.), Containing rough sketches, stories and versions of stories, reflections and observations.

Aphorisms

• "Reflections on Sin, Suffering, Hope, and the True Path"("Betrachtungen über Sünde, Leid, Hoffnung und den wahren Weg", ).

The list contains more than a hundred statements by Kafka, selected by him based on the materials of the 3rd and 4th in-octavo notebooks.

About Kafka

• Theodor Adorno "Notes on Kafka";
• Georges Bataille "Kafka" ;
• Valery Belonozhko "Sad Notes on the Novel "The Trial"", "Three sagas about the unfinished novels of Franz Kafka";
• Walter Benjamin "Franz Kafka";
• Maurice Blanchot "From Kafka to Kafka"(two articles from the collection: Reading Kafka and Kafka and Literature);
• Max Brod "Franz Kafka. Biography";
• Max Brod "Afterwords and notes to the novel" The Castle "";
• Max Brod "Franz Kafka. Prisoner of the Absolute";
• Max Brod "The Personality of Kafka";
• Albert Camus "Hope and Absurdity in the Works of Franz Kafka";
• Max Fry "Fasting on Kafka";
• Yuri Mann "Meeting in the Labyrinth (Franz Kafka and Nikolai Gogol)";
• David Zane Meyrowitz and Robert Crumb "Kafka for beginners";
• Vladimir Nabokov "The Transformation of Franz Kafka";
• Cynthia Ozick "Impossible to be Kafka";
• Anatoly Ryasov "The Man with Too Much Shadow";
• Nathalie Sarrot "From Dostoyevsky to Kafka".

Notes

Links

• Franz Kafka "The Castle" ImWerden Library
• The Kafka Project
• http://www.who2.com/franzkafka.html (in English)
• http://www.pitt.edu/~kafka/intro.html (in English)
• http://www.dividingline.com/private/Philosophy/Philosophers/Kafka/kafka.shtml (in English)