Franz Kafka: A Question of Jewish Identity: Two Perspectives

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.

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

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.

Review :
'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. 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. 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. '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.