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Pagini de jurnal şi corespondenţă
388 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
4 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Franz Kafka
3,375 books39.1k followersFranz Kafka was a German-speaking writer from Prague whose work became one of the foundations of modern literature, even though he published only a small part of his writing during his lifetime. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka grew up amid German, Czech, and Jewish cultural influences that shaped his sense of displacement and linguistic precision. His difficult relationship with his authoritarian father left a lasting mark, fostering feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inadequacy that became central themes in his fiction and personal writings.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 13, 2023
Jurnalul lui Kafka se întinde pe 12 caiete de însemnări (acoperă intervalul dintre 1910 și 1923), plus 3 caiete cu note de călătorie (din anii 1911-1912). Nu poate fi comparat cu așa-zisele jurnale intime (de tipul Amiel sau Maine de Biran), fiindcă autorul se referă foarte rar la sine. Și numai în treacăt și fără plăcere.
Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924) n-are nici o încredere în observația de sine și e foarte sceptic față de o autocunoaștere obținută prin introspecție (4 decembrie 1913, p.129). Eul nu are continuitate, e rapsodic (cf. pp.32, 129 etc.). În plus, K. are o înclinație nevrotică de a se subaprecia: „Sînt un om incapabil, ignorant” (18 noiembrie 1913, p.124). Poate exclama ca Pascal: eul este ceva care se cuvine disprețuit, „le moi est haïssable”.
Am reținut cîteva fantasme obsesive. Strivitoare este, desigur, cea a tatălui despotic (pp.34-40: un început de povestire intitulat „Lumea orașului”, 51, 56, 73, 97, 198, 217). Tatăl este figura interdicției. Strîns legată de fantasma tatălui este aceea a rătăcitorului, a individului izgonit din familie, a călătorului care pleacă fără o destinație precisă (p.87).
Pentru prozatorul praghez, caietul de jurnal era, în primul rînd, un instrument de lucru. K. se apuca de scris pe la 11 noaptea și încerca de cele mai multe ori să găsească începutul unei povestiri. Uneori, avea noroc (cf.pp.59-60: o parabolă, 144-152: „Ispita în sat”, 161-171: „Amintiri despre calea ferată la Kalda” etc.). În noaptea de 22 spre 23 septembrie 1912, compune povestirea „Verdictul”. Lucrează 8 ore ca un posedat (p.104). Doar noaptea îi oferea liniștea și putința concentrării (pp.54, 104, 178).
K. începe de timpuriu, tot mai îngrijorat, să-și noteze simptomele, insomnii frecvente, migrene: „Am dormit prost. Dureri de cap” (7 octombrie 1915, p.186). Migrena e o „lepră lăuntrică” (9 octombrie 1911, p.48). În 1917, Franz Kafka este diagnosticat cu tuberculoză: „Și încă o dată am strigat cît mă țineau puterile, afară, în lumea largă. Și atunci mi-au înfundat un căluș în gură, mi-au încătușat mîinile și picioarele, mi-au legat o cîrpă pe ochi” (3 august 1917, p.204). Se va muta din spital în spital, va suferi atroce. Tuberculoza îi afectase laringele. Nu mai putea fi hrănit nici măcar cu lichide, durerile erau insuportabile. Nu putea înghiți. Unii spun că a murit pur și simplu de foame...
Despre „Scrisoare către tata” am scris în altă parte. Scrisorile către prieteni sînt de o mare discreție și nu-s lipsite de umor. Epistolele către Felice Bauer și Milena Jesenská atestă - dacă mai era nevoie - teama lui K. de a se lăsa prins într-o relație...
P. S. Paginile de jurnal au fost traduse de Mircea Ivănescu. Traducătorul secțiunii epistolare este Alexandru Al. Șahighian. Prefața - foarte interesantă- aparține tot lui Alexandru Al. Șahighian.
Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924) n-are nici o încredere în observația de sine și e foarte sceptic față de o autocunoaștere obținută prin introspecție (4 decembrie 1913, p.129). Eul nu are continuitate, e rapsodic (cf. pp.32, 129 etc.). În plus, K. are o înclinație nevrotică de a se subaprecia: „Sînt un om incapabil, ignorant” (18 noiembrie 1913, p.124). Poate exclama ca Pascal: eul este ceva care se cuvine disprețuit, „le moi est haïssable”.
Am reținut cîteva fantasme obsesive. Strivitoare este, desigur, cea a tatălui despotic (pp.34-40: un început de povestire intitulat „Lumea orașului”, 51, 56, 73, 97, 198, 217). Tatăl este figura interdicției. Strîns legată de fantasma tatălui este aceea a rătăcitorului, a individului izgonit din familie, a călătorului care pleacă fără o destinație precisă (p.87).
Pentru prozatorul praghez, caietul de jurnal era, în primul rînd, un instrument de lucru. K. se apuca de scris pe la 11 noaptea și încerca de cele mai multe ori să găsească începutul unei povestiri. Uneori, avea noroc (cf.pp.59-60: o parabolă, 144-152: „Ispita în sat”, 161-171: „Amintiri despre calea ferată la Kalda” etc.). În noaptea de 22 spre 23 septembrie 1912, compune povestirea „Verdictul”. Lucrează 8 ore ca un posedat (p.104). Doar noaptea îi oferea liniștea și putința concentrării (pp.54, 104, 178).
K. începe de timpuriu, tot mai îngrijorat, să-și noteze simptomele, insomnii frecvente, migrene: „Am dormit prost. Dureri de cap” (7 octombrie 1915, p.186). Migrena e o „lepră lăuntrică” (9 octombrie 1911, p.48). În 1917, Franz Kafka este diagnosticat cu tuberculoză: „Și încă o dată am strigat cît mă țineau puterile, afară, în lumea largă. Și atunci mi-au înfundat un căluș în gură, mi-au încătușat mîinile și picioarele, mi-au legat o cîrpă pe ochi” (3 august 1917, p.204). Se va muta din spital în spital, va suferi atroce. Tuberculoza îi afectase laringele. Nu mai putea fi hrănit nici măcar cu lichide, durerile erau insuportabile. Nu putea înghiți. Unii spun că a murit pur și simplu de foame...
Despre „Scrisoare către tata” am scris în altă parte. Scrisorile către prieteni sînt de o mare discreție și nu-s lipsite de umor. Epistolele către Felice Bauer și Milena Jesenská atestă - dacă mai era nevoie - teama lui K. de a se lăsa prins într-o relație...
P. S. Paginile de jurnal au fost traduse de Mircea Ivănescu. Traducătorul secțiunii epistolare este Alexandru Al. Șahighian. Prefața - foarte interesantă- aparține tot lui Alexandru Al. Șahighian.
Displaying 1 of 1 review