Kafka's Travels

Exoticism, Colonialism, and the Traffic of Writing

J. Zilcosky (Autor)

Online Resource

XVII, 289 Seiten

2016
Palgrave Macmillan US (Hersteller)
978-1-137-07637-3 (ISBN)

Infos

In 1916, Kafka writes of The Sugar Baron , a dime-store colonial adventure novel, '[it] affects me so deeply that I feel it is about myself, or as if it were the book of rules for my life.' John Zilcosky reveals that this perhaps surprising statement - made by the Prague-bound poet of modern isolation - is part of a network of remarks that exemplify Kafka's ongoing preoccupation with popular travel writing, exoticism, and colonial fantasy. Taking this biographical peculiarity as a starting point, Kafka's Travels elegantly re-reads Kafka's major works ( Amerika , The Trial , The Castle ) through the lens of fin-de siecle travel culture. Making use of previously unexplored literary and cultural materials - travel diaries, train schedules, tour guides, adventure novels - Zilcosky argues that Kafka's uniquely modern metaphorics of alienation emerges out of the author's complex encounter with the utopian travel discourses of his day.

Inhalt

Introduction: Kafka's Travels? Transcending the Exotic: Nostalgia, Exoticism, and Kafka's Early Travel Novel, Richard and Samuel The "America" Novel: Learning How to Get Lost Travelling at Home: The Trial and the Exotic Heimat Savage Travel: Sadism and Masochism in "In the Penal Colony" Surveying the Castle: Kafka's Colonial Visions The Traffic of Writing: Technologies of Verkehr in the Letters to Milena Epilogue: Kafka's Remains: Travel, Death, and the Exotic Journey Home

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 30.4.2016
• Zusatzinfo: XVII, 289 p.
• Verlagsort: New York
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: America • argue • Colonialism • Culture • Death • discourse • Franz Kafka • Metaphor • Novel • Poet • Utopia • Writing
• ISBN-10: 1-137-07637-2 / 1137076372
• ISBN-13: 978-1-137-07637-3 / 9781137076373
• Zustand: Neuware