Franz Kafka: A Question of Jewish Identity: Two Perspectives

by Sara Loeb

Overview

Franz Kafka, the Jewish writer from Prague, who wrote in German, grew up after the Emancipation at a time when most Jews in Central and Western Europe suffered from an identity crisis. The most prominent characteristic of the experience of this generation of young people was "hybridism," a kind of partial assimilation that brought them to a dead-end. In Franz Kafka: A Question of Jewish Identity, Sara Loeb examines this complex dialectic, focusing on the question of if, how, and to what extent Kafka's works reflect the identity crisis he suffered. She offers a new perspective of his life through an encounter between the points of view of two well-known critics: Max Brod, Kafka's close friend, and Marthe Rober, a literary critic who translated Kafka's works into French. Each seeks to examine, in a different way, the source of Kafka's link to his Jewishness. Loeb opens a window to Kafka's inner world, and examines the man and his work from a new perspective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761821410
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/26/2001
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Sara Loeb, MA in French Literature and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Bar-Ilan University, specializes in inter-disciplinary research on Western culture, Central European Judaism, and Holocaust Literature.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Franz Kafka- The Jewish Element in His Life
Chapter 3 Max Brod and Marthe Robert- The Background of Their Philosophical Approaches
Chapter 4 Modes of Criticism
Chapter 5 Max Brod and the Religious Moment (A Metaphysical View)
Chapter 6 Marthe Robert and the Duality of Identity (Psychoanalytical-Structural Approach)
Chapter 7 Summary
Chapter 8 Endnotes
Chapter 9 Bibliography
Chapter 10 Index

Editorial Reviews

'Franz Kafka: A Question of Jewish Identity'.. . is a meticulously presented, in-depth focus on life, philosophy, and Jewish identity of the renowned author Franz Kafka.. . highly recommended for students of Kafka's writings as an unusually thoughtful, albeit sometimes technical account of the man, his life, thought, and work.

The Bookwatch

Loeb's attempt to find middle ground between two competing perspectives (Max Brod's overly optimistic theological appraisal of Kafka's aesthetic achievement and Marthe Robert's 'psychoanalytic-structural' approach) yields some provocative insights intothe triangulating effects of Kafka's multiple alienation as an assimilated Jew writing in German in the Czech city of Prague.

Choice Reviews

Loeb's attempt to find middle ground between two competing perspectives (Max Brod's overly optimistic theological appraisal of Kafka's aesthetic achievement and Marthe Robert's 'psychoanalytic-structural' approach) yields some provocative insights into the triangulating effects of Kafka's multiple alienation as an assimilated Jew writing in German in the Czech city of Prague.

Choice

'Franz Kafka: A Question of Jewish Identity'. . . is a meticulously presented, in-depth focus on life, philosophy, and Jewish identity of the renowned author Franz Kafka. . . highly recommended for students of Kafka's writings as an unusually thoughtful, albeit sometimes technical account of the man, his life, thought, and work.--The Bookwatch

Loeb's attempt to find middle ground between two competing perspectives (Max Brod's overly optimistic theological appraisal of Kafka's aesthetic achievement and Marthe Robert's 'psychoanalytic-structural' approach) yields some provocative insights into the triangulating effects of Kafka's multiple alienation as an assimilated Jew writing in German in the Czech city of Prague.--CHOICE

From the Publisher

Loeb's attempt to find middle ground between two competing perspectives (Max Brod's overly optimistic theological appraisal of Kafka's aesthetic achievement and Marthe Robert's 'psychoanalytic-structural' approach) yields some provocative insights intothe triangulating effects of Kafka's multiple alienation as an assimilated Jew writing in German in the Czech city of Prague.

CHOICE