Franz Kafka: Subversive Dreamer (Michigan Studies in Comparative Jewish Cultures) - Softcover

Lowy, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0472053094 ISBN 13: 9780472053094

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 2016

Synopsis

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 better 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. Löwy’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.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Löwy is Emeritus Research Director in Social Sciences at the CNRS (French National Center of Scientific Research) and lectures at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS; Paris, France).
Inez Hedges is Professor of French, German, and Cinema Studies at the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Northeastern University, Boston.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472053094
• ISBN 13: 9780472053094
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 156