Kafka's the Castle and the Critical Imagination (Literary Criticism in Perspective) - Hardcover

Dowden, Stephen D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1571130047 ISBN 13: 9781571130044

Publisher: Camden House, 1995

Synopsis

Kafka's final, unfinished novel, The Castle, remains one of the most celebrated yet most impenetrable masterpieces of modernist fiction, and a focus of literary criticsm and theory. In this chronological survey of the critical attention it has attracted, both academic and non-academic, Professor Dowden emphasises the acts of critical imagination which have shaped our image and understanding of Kafka and the novel. He explores the historical and cultural milieus of criticism, from the Weimar Era of Max Brod and Walter Benjamin to Lionel Trilling's Cold War to postmodern multiculturalism and 'cultural studies', showing how and why The Castle has aroused strong opinions in each generation of criticism; he also accounts for those moments in which the novel escapes from an historically anchored understanding into the realm of the universal.

About this title

Review:

"[Dowden's] accessibly and forcefully written book (enlivened by words like 'hornswoggle' and 'boondoggle') is more than a Forschungsbericht: it is also a judicious, stimulating, and original contributions to the understanding of Kafka as well as Kafka's critics." AUSTRIAN STUDIES

About the Author:

Professor of Germanic Languages, Chair at Brandeis University, Boston

About this edition

• Publisher: Camden House
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1571130047
• ISBN 13: 9781571130044
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176