书 名：Kafka: Making of an Icon / 卡夫卡：偶像的形成

作 者：Ritchie Robertson

出 版：Bodleian Library ，2024

装 帧：精装，192页

语 种：英语

尺 寸：23.7*25.9 cm

弗朗茨·卡夫卡于1924年去世，享年还不足41岁。在他有生之年，他仅出版了七本小册子，但他留下了三部未完成的小说以及大量的故事、随想和私人写作，这些都在他去世后得以出版。尤其是他的小说，以及《判决》和《变形记》等短篇小说，使他成为了二十世纪最广为人知、最重要且最具影响力的作家之一。他的作品展现出了与后世不断变化的关切话题对话的非凡能力。

这本论文集配以手稿、档案材料、明信片和家庭照片，不仅将卡夫卡置于他生活的时代背景中，还展示了他的个人经历如何滋养了他的想象力。如他的笔记所揭示的，他在西欧的实际旅行使他得以练习描述性写作。通过阅读进行的想象之旅增强了他对遥远空间的着迷，并使他意识到了欧洲殖民主义。他小说中的熟悉场景变得陌生而令人困惑。在描写动物时，他试图在想象中进入它们非人类的存在方式。这本书不仅是对卡夫卡的成就和创造力的颂扬，也是对他——即便在他去世100年后——如何继续激发全世界新的文学、戏剧和电影创作的致敬。

Franz Kafka died in 1924, when he was not yet forty one. During his life he published only seven small books, but he left behind three unfinished novels and a mass of stories, reflections and personal writings which were published after his death. His novels in particular, alongside short stories such as The Judgement and The Metamorphosis, have made him one of the most widely read, significant and influential writers of the twentieth century. His writings show an extraordinary ability to speak to the changing concerns of later generations.

This collection of essays, illustrated with manuscripts, archival material, postcards and family photographs, not only sets Kafka in the context of his life and times but also shows how his own experiences nourished his imagination. Literal travel in Western Europe enabled him, as his notebooks reveal, to practise descriptive writing. Imaginative travel through reading strengthened his fascination with remote spaces and made him aware of European colonialism. Familiar settings in his fiction become alien and bewildering. When writing about animals, he sought to enter imaginatively into their non-human way of being. This book is a celebration not just of Kafka’s achievements and creativity, but also of how – even 100 years after his death – Kafka continues to inspire new literary, theatrical and cinematic creations around the world.