Prague-born writer Franz Kafka wrote in German, and his stories, such as "The Metamorphosis" (1916), and posthumously published novels, including The Trial (1925), concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal world.
Jewish middle-class family of this major fiction writer of the 20th century spoke German. People consider his unique body of much incomplete writing, mainly published posthumously, among the most influential in European literature.
His stories include "The Metamorphosis" (1912) and "In the Penal Colony" (1914), whereas his posthumous novels include The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926) and Amerika (1927).
Despite first language, Kafka also spoke fluent Czech. Later, Kafka acquired some knowledge of the French language and culture from Flaubert, one of his favorite authors.
Kafka first studied chemistry at the Charles-Ferdinand University of Prague but after two weeks switched to law. This study offered a range of career possibilities, which pleased his father, and required a longer course of study that gave Kafka time to take classes in German studies and art history. At the university, he joined a student club, named Lese- und Redehalle der Deutschen Studenten, which organized literary events, readings, and other activities. In the end of his first year of studies, he met Max Brod, a close friend of his throughout his life, together with the journalist Felix Weltsch, who also studied law. Kafka obtained the degree of doctor of law on 18 June 1906 and performed an obligatory year of unpaid service as law clerk for the civil and criminal courts.
Writing of Kafka attracted little attention before his death. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories and never finished any of his novels except the very short "The Metamorphosis." Kafka wrote to Max Brod, his friend and literary executor: "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread." Brod told Kafka that he intended not to honor these wishes, but Kafka, so knowing, nevertheless consequently gave these directions specifically to Brod, who, so reasoning, overrode these wishes. Brod in fact oversaw the publication of most of work of Kafka in his possession; these works quickly began to attract attention and high critical regard.
Max Brod encountered significant difficulty in compiling notebooks of Kafka into any chronological order as Kafka started writing in the middle of notebooks, from the last towards the first, et cetera.
Kafka wrote all his published works in German except several letters in Czech to Milena Jesenská.
In diesem Band voller Kurzgeschichten schildert uns Kafka, wie so oft in kafkaesker Weise, viele Geschichten missverstandener, gepeinigter Menschen. Viele dieser unbekannteren Geschichten Kafkas sind in ihrer Kürze sehr eindrücklich und lehrreich z.B. beim Hungerkünstler.
Meine Lebensgeschichte allerdings war die im Titel genannte Strafkolonie. Sie erzählt von der Brutalität und dem, fast schon, Ehrgefühl, das viele Menschen an der sinnlosen Gewalt und der Rache finden. Leider sind nicht alle Erzählungen so spannend, weshalb die Bewertung so mager ausfällt. Wer den Stil Kafkas mag wird in diesem Band viel Neues entdecken und auch den Autor selbst besser kennenlernen.
Kurze Geschichten/Erzählungen sind glaube ich einfach nicht so mein Ding. Normalerweise gefallen mir die Werke Kafkas, allerdings waren hier nur wenige Geschichten die für mich wirklich mitreißend waren. Folgende sind zu empfehlen
- In der Strafkolonie - Ein altes Blatt - Das nächste Dorf - Eine Kaiserliche Botschaft - Ein Bericht für eine Akademie - Eine kleine Frau
Den Rest fand ich grundsätzlich einfach nicht relevant für mich.
Die Strafkolonie: wie wir das Böse banalisieren können-innerhalb jedes eines einmal eingefleischten Kontextes (mag er auch noch so pervers sein) kann der Mensch zum Spießer werden. Es kann uns sogar so vereinnahmen, dass wir dafür zum Märtyrer werden…
2,5 stars and rounded up because the first story really stayed with me. After that it was downhill though as I cared little about any of the other short stories and the overly long and convoluted sentences were starting to lose me.