Kafka’s Der Verschollene and the issue of labour
Abstract
The issue of labour relations plays a central and often underestimated role in Kafka’s fiction. In this paper, possible reasons for this lack of critical attention are considered, especially in Marxist-oriented criticism: thereafter, the main occurrences of this theme are analysed, firstly in Kafka’s texts in general, and then in the novel that mainly deals with it, The Man Who Disappeared, written in 1912-1913. A distinction is also attempted between “ordinary work” and “extraordinary work” within Kafka’s idea of work.
Downloads
References
Burwell M.L., “Kafka’s Amerika as a Novel of Social Criticism”, German Studies Review, 2.2 (1979): 193-209.
Greiner B., “Im Umkreis von Ramses: Kafkas Verschollener als jüdischer Bildungsroman”, Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, 77.4 (2003): 637-658.
Hermsdorf K., Kafka: Weltbild und Roman, Berlin, Rütten & Loening, 1961.
Hounshell D.A., From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932: the Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.
Holitscher A., Amerika heute und morgen. Reiseerlebnisse, Berlin, Fischer Verlag, 1912.
Kraus A.W., “Assessing Mr. Samsa’s Employee Rights: Kafka and the Art of the Human Resource Nightmare”, The Labor Lawyer, 15, (1999): 309-319.
Löwy M., Franz Kafka, rêveur insoumis, Paris, Stock, 2004 (citato secondo l’edizione italiana: M.L., Kafka sognatore ribelle, Milano, Elèuthera, 2007).
Lukács G., “Franz Kafka o Thomas Mann?” in Id., Scritti sul realismo, vol. I, Torino, Einaudi, 1978: 895-944.
Orkin N., Dubas R., “Kafka, Labour, and The Castle: The Employment Status of K.”, Journal of the Kafka Society of America, 17-18 (1993): 33-39.
Reimann P., “Die gesellschaftliche Problematik in Kafkas Romanen”, Weimarer Beiträge, 3 (1957): 598-618.
Richter H., Franz Kafka: Werk und Entwurf, Berlin, Rütten & Loening, 1962.
Rohde B., “und blätterte ein wenig in der Bibel.” Studien zu Kafkas Bibellektüre und ihren Auswirkungen auf sein Werk, Würzburg, Königshausen & Neumann, 2002.
Rohdes C., Westwood R., “The Limits of Generosity: Lessons on Ethics, Economy, and Reciprocity in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis”, Journal of Business Ethics, 133 (2016): 235-248.
Taylor F.W., The Principles of Scientific Management, New York and London, Harper & Brothers, 1911.
Wasserman, M. “Changing minds, saving lives: Franz Kafka as a key industrial reformer” East European Quarterly, 35 (2001): 473-482.
Wirkner A., Kafka und die Außenwelt. Quellenstudien zum Amerika-Fragment, Stuttgart, Klett, 1976.
Copyright Notice
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and to adapt the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
