The Cambridge Companion to Kafka (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

Rating:
Summary: Solid introductions, thoughtful elaborations
Review: With no table of contents on the Amazon site, it's difficult to guess at what's inside. I've read Kafka's work with nearly no critical assistance, so finding this collection afterwards only stimulated me towards re-readings of his texts. Like the Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad (and unlike much within the Companions to Joyce or Beckett, for instance), this volume in the series guides both newcomer and veteran reader of an author whose symbolic, portentous themes may discourage first-timers.

The editor clearly introduces Kafka within his wider European context; David Constantine shows how we can read Kafka more open-endedly as opposed to the straightjacketed interpretations of scholars, and emphasizes a recurrent theme: K's search for truth demonstrates how his work must slip out of any closed meaning anyone can attempt to lasso around a slippery critter like Kafka.

Anne Fuchs tries, anyway, with a psychoanalytic take on "The Man Who Disappeared" [aka "Amerika"]; Rolf Goebel's exploration of the flaneur in the modern city of The Trial (I too prefer German connotations of the "Process" better as its title) works better to show off an element overlooked to many for a fresher interpretation than Fuchs' for her chosen text. Elizabeth Boa's examination of matriarchal household vs. patriarchal "Castle" provides a convincing look at Heimat, myth, and quest in that novel; Ruth Gross inevitably must cram too much in too little space for her dash past the short fiction, but her focus on the divided self of Kafka who must write to survive despite a job shows an author many of us can understand as truly one of us.

Stanley Corngold (whose translation of the Metamorphosis should be studied by all readers to compare against the Muirs' version)
offers a complex examination of the metaphysical division in the later prose and aphorisms; Bill Dodd revives the political aspects of Kafka to counterbalance the common religious-mystical readings, and places Kafka within the nationalist, Zionist, labor, and technological issues of his time, usefully reminding us of his occupation in the new field of worker's accident insurance and the clashes between the company's interests and those of the everyday claimant.

Iris Bruce for Jewish folkloric elements and Dagmar Lorenz for gender issues both explain well the relevance of these themes in accessible essays; Anthony Northey's examination of biographical myths vs. realities usefully suggests to non-specialists how we should revise the ideas that Kafka was some working man's crusader within the limits of his job, and how the Castle's women illuminate the place of the real women in K's life.

Osman Durrani's chapter on editions, translations, [stage] adaptations compresses fascinating issues arising from these three elements; Helen Hughes and Martin Brady's Kafka and film adaptations, however, suffers from its self-consciously clever style at the expense of detailed analysis (Welles' "The Trial" gets the best critique, but deserves more in-depth treatment); Iris Bruce's chapter on Kafka and popular culture likewise gives far too little detail and focus mainly on "The Fly" and "Naked Lunch"-type homages while barely noticing, say, the whole effect of K. on the tourist industry in Prague or the impact on a wider audience beyond these two movies and a R. Crumb comic biography.

All in all, worth a read; the jargon of these specialists should not detract from the insights which open up new depths for readers outside the classroom and the seminar as well.