Kafka and Dostoyevsky The Shaping of Influence
This book evaluates the importance of Dostoyevsky's life and imaginative fiction as a stimulus to Kafka's own writing. Dostoyevskian material is situated within detailed readings of particular works. The principle sources discussed are The Double, Notes f
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Kafka and Dostoyevsky The Shaping of Influence
W.J. Dodd
Lecturer in German Studies University of Binningham
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-21862-2 ISBN 978-1-349-21860-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-21860-8
© W. J. Dodd 1992 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1992
All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1992 ISBN 978-0-312-06795-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dodd, W. J., 1950Kafka and Dostoyevsky : the shaping of influence / W. J. Dodd. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-06795-3 1. Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924-Knowledge-Literature. 2. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881-Influence. I. Title. PT2621.A26Z6766 1992 833'.912-dc20 91-22360 CIP
For Mary and Bill
'Am Verhaltnis der modernen Kunstwerke zu alteren, die ihnen ahneln, ware die DifJerenz herauszuarbeiten.'
Theodor Adorno 'It is the characteristic feature of literature to be endlessly interpreted and reinterpreted by its readers.'
T zvetan T odorov
Contents Foreword
viii
Acknowledgements
x
List of Abbreviations
xi
1
Introduction
2
Kafka's Russia
15
3
A Friend in 5t Petersburg? Das Urteil
33
4
Mr Golyadkin: Die Verwandlung (I)
51
5
Underground Men: Die Verwandlung (II)
80
6
Punishments and Crimes: Der ProzefJ
108
7
Dostoyevsky Underground: In der Strafkolonie
155
8
Coda: Erinnerungen an die Kaldabahn, Der Unterstaatsanwalt, Der Dorfschullehrer
175
The Narrative Problem
189
Kafka's Dostoyevsky: Conclusions and Questions
202
9 10
1
Notes
207
Bibliography
227
Index
233
vii
Foreword It is all but impossible to list the many debts I have incurred in writing this book. First and not least there is the debt to my wife, Kath, who believed in the author even when the author had doubts. There is also, of course, the indebtedness to other scholars whose work has helped shape my own ideas, and there is space here to mention only the most obvious. Most recently, I have been in the fortunate position of being able to draw on the painstaking work of the editors of the historical-critical edition of Kafka. This book was about to go to press when the Tagebucher and Der Procej3 were published. I am delighted to have been able to check my findings against these superior editions, which are referred to throughout. I would also make special mention of the work of Hartmut Binder, Roy PascaL John Jones and Ritchie Robertson, and also Herbert Kraft, whose seminars on Kafka in Munster taught me to read more closely. The influence of these and other scholars on the shaping of this book will be evident throughout, even and especially where I am prompted to disagree. I am also grateful to colleagues at Birmingham, especially Ron Speirs and Michael Butler, for their helpful criticism; and to Dr John White, the publishers' reader, for his detailed comments on the 'final' manuscript. The greatest of these debts, however
