Professor Michael Levine Fall 2011 , Wednesday 4:30-7:10 Office Hrs: Thurs, 2:45-5pm German 16:470:550:01 172 College Avenue Comp Lit 16:195:605:01 Phone: 732-932-7201 Jewish Studies 16:563:550:01 Email: [email protected] 172 College Avenue Seminar Room
Kafka
An examination of texts by Kafka including selections from his parables, short stories, novels, diaries, and correspondence. Particular attention will be paid to questions of intertextuality, the relationship between writing and the body, and the gestural language of Kafka's texts. Critical work by Benjamin, Menninghaus, Deleuze and Guattari, Canetti, Wagenbach, and others. Discussions in English. Readings available in German and English.
German Books to be purchased: Franz Kafka Gesammelte Werke 12 Bände (Fischer Taschenbuch) OR FranzKafka Kritische Ausgabe in 15 Bänden (Fischer Taschenbuch)
Also available for purchase in English translation: Kafka, Amerika: The Man Who Disappeared Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories Kafka, The Trial Kafka, The Castle Canetti, Kafka's Other Trial: The Letters to Felice
All other readings are available on Sakai at: https://sakai.rutgers.edu/portal/site/63b1cd4b-65c8-476a-80f4-195f786f11dc and are marked with an asterisk * below:
Course meetings:
Sept 7 Introduction to the course Kafka, “First Sorrow” Kafka, “Erstes Leid” Prague and linguistic context Sept 14 Getting One’s Bearings: Benjamin on Kafka Benjamin “Franz Kafka: On the Tenth Anniversary of his Death”* Benjamin , “Franz Kafka: Zur zehnten Wiederkehr seines Todestages”* Wagenbach, “Prague at the Turn of the Century”* Demetz, “T.G. Masaryk’s Prague” * (recommended) Hamacher, “Bogengebete ”* (recommended)
Sept 21 Fathers and Sons: A Combat of Parasitic Vermin Kafka, “The Judgment“ Kafka, “Das Urteil“in Ein Landarzt 37-52 Kafka, Diary entry dated September 23, 1912 Tagebücher 101; The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-1913 , 279. Brod, Franz Kafka: A Biography (excerpt)* Kafka, Letter to his Father * Kafka, “Brief an den Vater“ in Zur Frage der Gesetze 10-66 Derrida, “Literature in Secret: An Impossible Filiation“ 9-12* “La litterature au secret: Une filiation impossible“ 178-185* “On Kafka’s Letter to the Father”*
Sept 28 Fathers and Sons II: Abraham, the Other Kafka, “Abraham” in Parable and Paradox 41-45 * Derrida, “Abraham, the Other”*
Oct 5 Transformation Transformed Kafka, The Metamorphosis Kafka, Die Verwandlung in Ein Landarzt 93-158 Ovid, Metamorphoses Book 8* Levine, “The Sense of an Unding: Kafka, Ovid and the Misfits of Metamorphosis”*
Oct 12 Kafkaesque Legal Situations Kafka, The Trial (Der Prozess ) Butler, “Who Owns Kafka?” London Review of Books* Bautman, “Kafka’s Last Trial – The New York Times”*
Oct 19 The Subterranean Life of the German Language Kafka, “The Burrow“ Kafka, “Der Bau“ in Das Ehepaar 165-208 Kafka “Introductory Lecture on Yiddish“* Kafka, “Einleitungsvortrag über Jargon“ in Beschreibung eines Kampfes 149-153 Gellen, “Hearing Spaces”* Bay, “Kafkas Tinnitus“* Sussman, “The Burrow ( Der Bau )“* Suchoff “Kafka’s Jewish Languages: The Hidden Openness of Tradition“* Deleuze and Guattari, “What Is a Minor Literature?“ in Toward a Minor Literature*
Oct 26 The Jackdaw Cry of the Nomads Kafka, “The Cares of a Family Man,” “Jackals and Arabs,” An Old Manuscript,” “The New Advocate,” “A Report to an Academy,” “The Hunter Gracchus” Kafka, “Die Sorge des Hausvaters,” “Schakale und Araber,” “Ein altes Blatt,” Der neue Advokat,” “Ein Bericht für eine Akademie,” all in Ein Landarzt; “Der Jäger Gracchus” in Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer” 40-45 and 96-100 Hamacher, „The Gesture in the Name:On Benjamin and Kafka“*
Nov 2 Wounded Gatherings Kafka, “A Country Doctor,” “Josephine the Singer or the Mouse Folk” Kafka, “Ein Landarzt,” “Josefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse” in Ein Landarzt 200-207; 274-296 Menninghaus, “The Angel of Disgust: Kafka’s Poetics of ‘Innocent Enjoyment of ‘Sulpherous’ Pleasures” especially pp. 318-332* Anderson, Kafka’s Clothes * (recommended)
Nov 9 Speaking and Listening Otherwise: Unhinged Mouths and Sharpened Ears Kafka, “Investigations of a Dog,“ „In the Penal Colony,“ „The Hunger Artist“ Kafka, “Forschungen eines Hundes“ in Das Ehepaar 48-93; “In der Strafkolonie“ and “Der Hungerkünstler in Ein Landarzt 159-196; 261-274 Levine, “Kafka and the Poetics of Suspension“* Recommended: Baudelaire „Confiteor de l’artiste“* Peggy Kamuf, „Syringe (at the point)“* Book of Addresses 199-216*
Nov 16 Parables and Paradoxes Kafka, “The Silence of the Sirens,” “On Parables,” “The Coming of the Messiah”*
Homer, The Odyssey Book XII* Joyce, Ulysses Episode XI* Moses, “Franz Kafka’s Silence of the Sirens”* Wood, “Kafka’s China and the Parable of Parables”* North, “Disappointing Time: Kafka’s Messiah”
Nov 23 Thanksgiving Break
Nov 30 The Castle in Literature and Film Kafka, Das Schloß Haneke, Das Schloß (recommended)
Dec 7 Kafka’s Other Trial Kafka, Letters to Felice (selections) Cannetti, Kafka’s Other Trial: Letters to Felice