在與世界的對抗中: 慢讀卡夫卡

by Franz Kafka, Peter Höfle (Editor), 闕旭玲 (Translator)

對他而言，寫作是孤獨的祈禱追求純粹的作家耿一偉（臺北藝術節藝術總監，臺北藝術大學與台灣藝術大學戲劇系兼任助理教授）導讀侯季然（電影導演）姚謙（音樂人、文字作者）袁瓊瓊（作家）張守慧（文藻外語大學歐亞語文學院院長）以上皆按姓氏筆畫排列「對卡夫卡而言，寫作是一種祈禱，而且是孤獨的祈禱。他不能沒有寫作，更不希望被干擾，彷彿他本身就是寫作的意志。沒有比卡夫卡更純粹的作家了。」 —— 耿一偉（本書導讀者）沒有任何作家的名字像卡夫卡一樣，具有如此特殊的一種氛圍。但，當有人說這是「卡夫卡式」（kafkaesk）的風格時，我們當真知道那是什麼意思嗎？無論大家對「卡夫卡式」這個形容詞有多少人云亦云的刻板印象，隱身背後的其實都是一位具非凡文學能力，無比聰穎又不教條的思想家，更是一位真摯的朋友。本書除了替讀者摘錄卡夫卡最具代表性的一些文字與段落外，還特別挑選了卡夫卡對自己，及其身為一名作家的一些重要看法，以期為二十世紀最具影響力的作家勾勒出一幅鮮活的自畫像。

221 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 10, 2015

About the author

Franz 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 His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime.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.