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Erzählungen: Band 1 (Kafka - Kommentierte Ausgabe)
Die in Kafkas erster intensiver Schaffensphase ab 1912 entstandenen Erzählungen gehören weltweit zu den populärsten seiner »Das Urteil«, »Die Verwandlung«, »In der Strafkolonie«.
Die dunklen Ursprünge von Macht, aber auch deren Missbrauch gehören zu den zentralen Motiven der Erzählungen, die in Kafkas erster intensiver Schaffensphase von 1912 bis 1915 entstanden - etwa »Das Urteil«, »Die Verwandlung«, »In der Strafkolonie« und weitere, teils unvollendete Texte - und die dort einen ganz eigenen literarischen Kosmos formen. Auch die Überlagerung von Schrecken, Absurdität und Komik gehört zu den Merkmalen, die wir heute als charakteristisch für Kafkas Kunst wahrnehmen. Seine erste Buchpublikation »Betrachtung« (1912) ist Ouvertüre und Versprechen zugleich.
Die Leitfrage der Kommentierten Ausgabe ist, wie Kafka das eigentlich gemacht hat. Der ausführliche Stellenkommentar erläutert die wesentlichen Motive, Begriffe und Erzähltechniken, aber auch bedeutsame Streichungen und Korrekturen im Manuskript, was einen Einblick in Kafkas Werkstatt ermöglicht. Dabei wird eine außergewöhnlich dicht gewobene Textur erkennbar, ein virtuoses Spiel mit verschiedenen Ebenen der Wirklichkeit, mit Ironie und zahlreichen versteckten Hinweisen des Erzählers. Einen Überblick zur Wirkungsgeschichte der Erzählungen bietet abschließend das Nachwort des Herausgebers.
Die dunklen Ursprünge von Macht, aber auch deren Missbrauch gehören zu den zentralen Motiven der Erzählungen, die in Kafkas erster intensiver Schaffensphase von 1912 bis 1915 entstanden - etwa »Das Urteil«, »Die Verwandlung«, »In der Strafkolonie« und weitere, teils unvollendete Texte - und die dort einen ganz eigenen literarischen Kosmos formen. Auch die Überlagerung von Schrecken, Absurdität und Komik gehört zu den Merkmalen, die wir heute als charakteristisch für Kafkas Kunst wahrnehmen. Seine erste Buchpublikation »Betrachtung« (1912) ist Ouvertüre und Versprechen zugleich.
Die Leitfrage der Kommentierten Ausgabe ist, wie Kafka das eigentlich gemacht hat. Der ausführliche Stellenkommentar erläutert die wesentlichen Motive, Begriffe und Erzähltechniken, aber auch bedeutsame Streichungen und Korrekturen im Manuskript, was einen Einblick in Kafkas Werkstatt ermöglicht. Dabei wird eine außergewöhnlich dicht gewobene Textur erkennbar, ein virtuoses Spiel mit verschiedenen Ebenen der Wirklichkeit, mit Ironie und zahlreichen versteckten Hinweisen des Erzählers. Einen Überblick zur Wirkungsgeschichte der Erzählungen bietet abschließend das Nachwort des Herausgebers.
Kindle Edition
Published August 20, 2025
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About the author
Franz Kafka
3,171 books38.3k followersPrague-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.
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.
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