The Remnant: Franz Kafka’s Letter

The Remnant: Franz Kafka’s Letter
Author: Eli Schonfeld
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2024-09-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 3111442934

As a Jew, Kafka received nothing in inheritance from his father. Nevertheless, throughout his œuvre, subtly, remnants of Jewish words can be deciphered. Hence, the question at the heart of this book: what remains when what’s left is a "nothing of Judaism" (Letter to the Father)? This question necessitates a philosophical and Jewish reading of his work, prompting a reconsideration of the intricate relationships between the Jew and the West and the Jew and modernity. Thus, this book proposes an examination of Kafka's oeuvre to uncover what remains Jewish therein – at the heart of Europe, amidst modernity – where nothing remains: the enigma of the Letter.

The Remnant: Franz Kafka’s Letter

The Remnant: Franz Kafka’s Letter
Author: Eli Schonfeld
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2024-09-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 3111443159

As a Jew, Kafka received nothing in inheritance from his father. Nevertheless, throughout his œuvre, subtly, remnants of Jewish words can be deciphered. Hence, the question at the heart of this book: what remains when what’s left is a "nothing of Judaism" (Letter to the Father)? This question necessitates a philosophical and Jewish reading of his work, prompting a reconsideration of the intricate relationships between the Jew and the West and the Jew and modernity. Thus, this book proposes an examination of Kafka's oeuvre to uncover what remains Jewish therein – at the heart of Europe, amidst modernity – where nothing remains: the enigma of the Letter.

The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany

The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany
Author: Michael Brenner
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780300077209

Although Jewish participation in German society increased after World War I, Jews did not completely assimilate into that society. In fact, says Michael Brenner in this intriguing book, the Jewish population of Weimar Germany became more aware of its Jewishness and created new forms of German-Jewish culture in literature, music, fine arts, education, and scholarship. Brenner presents the first in-depth study of this culture, drawing a fascinating portrait of people in the midst of redefining themselves. The Weimar Jews chose neither a radical break with the past nor a return to the past but instead dressed Jewish traditions in the garb of modern forms of cultural expression. Brenner describes, for example, how modern translations made classic Jewish texts accessible, Jewish museums displayed ceremonial artifacts in a secular framework, musical arrangements transformed synagogue liturgy for concert audiences, and popular novels recalled aspects of the Jewish past. Brenner's work, while bringing this significant historical period to life, illuminates contemporary Jewish issues. The preservation and even enhancement of Jewish distinctiveness, combined with the seemingly successful participation of Jews in a secular, non-Jewish society, offer fresh insight into modern questions of Jewish existence, identity, and integration into other cultures.

Letters to Felice

Letters to Felice
Author: Franz Kafka
Publisher: Schocken
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2016-12-06
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0805208518

Franz Kafka met Felice Bauer in August 1912, at the home of his friend Max Brod. Energetic, down-to-earth, and life-affirming, the twenty-five-year-old secretary was everything Kafka was not, and he was instantly smitten. Because he was living in Prague and she in Berlin, his courtship was largely an epistolary one—passionate, self-deprecating, and anxious letters sent almost daily, sometimes even two or three times a day. But soon after their engagement was announced in 1914, Kafka began to worry that marriage would interfere with his writing and his need for solitude. The more than five hundred letters Kafka wrote to Felice—through their breakup, a second engagement in 1917, and their final parting in the fall of that year, when Kafka began to feel the effects of the tuberculosis that would eventually claim his life—reveal the full measure of his inner turmoil as he tried, in vain, to balance his desire for human connection with what he felt were the solitary demands of his craft.

Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors

Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors
Author: Franz Kafka
Publisher: Schocken
Total Pages: 527
Release: 2013-06-26
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0804150788

More than two decades of letters from one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century—the author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial—to the people in his life, from his years as a student in Prague in the early 1900s to his final months in the sanatorium near Vienna where he died in 1924. Sometimes surprisingly humorous, sometimes wrenchingly sad, these letters, collected after Kafka's death by his friend and literary executor Max Brod, include charming notes to school friends; fascinating accounts to Brod about his work in its various stages of publication; correspondence with his publisher, Kurt Wolff, about manuscripts in progress, suggested book titles, type design, and late royalty statements; revealing exchanges with other young writers of the day, including Martin Buber and Felix Weltsch, on life, literature, and girls; and heartbreaking reports to his parents, sisters, and friends on the declining state of his health in the last months of his life.

The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-1923

The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-1923
Author: Franz Kafka
Publisher: Schocken
Total Pages: 529
Release: 1988-10-30
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0805209069

The diaries of the acclaimed author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial—one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century—provide a penetrating look into Prague and the life and dreams of one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. These diaries cover the years 1910 to 1923, the year before Kafka’s death at the age of forty. They provide a look into Kafka’s accounts of his dreams, his feelings for the father he worshipped and the woman he could not bring himself to marry, his sense of guilt, and his feelings of being an outcast. They offer an account of a life of almost unbearable intensity.

Franz Kafka in Context

Franz Kafka in Context
Author: Carolin Duttlinger
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2018
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1107085497

Accessible essays place Kafka in historical, political and cultural context, providing new and often unexpected perspectives on his works.

Tree of Souls

Tree of Souls
Author: Howard Schwartz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 705
Release: 2006-12-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0195327136

Drawing from the Bible, the Pseudepigrapha, the Talmud and Midrash, the kabbalistic literature, medieval folklore, Hasidic texts, and oral lore collected in the modern era, Schwartz has gathered together nearly 700 of the key Jewish myths. For each myth, he includes extensive commentary, revealing the source of the myth and explaining how it relates to other Jewish myths as well as to world literature --from publisher description

Kafka and the Universal

Kafka and the Universal
Author: Arthur Cools
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2016-07-25
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 311045811X

Kafka’s work has been attributed a universal significance and is often regarded as the ultimate witness of the human condition in the twentieth century. Yet his work is also considered paradigmatic for the expression of the singular that cannot be subsumed under any generalization. This paradox engenders questions not only concerning the meaning of the universal as it manifests itself in (and is transformed by) Kafka’s writings but also about the expression of the singular in literary fiction as it challenges the opposition between the universal and the singular. The contributions in this volume approach these questions from a variety of perspectives. They are structured according to the following issues: ambiguity as a tool of deconstructing the pre-established philosophical meanings of the universal; the concept of the law as a major symbol for the universal meaning of Kafka’s writings; the presence of animals in Kafka’s texts; the modernist mode of writing as challenge of philosophical concepts of the universal; and the meaning and relevance of the universal in contemporary Kafka reception. This volume examines central aspects of the interplay between philosophy and literature.