France/Kafka: An Author in Theory

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While his memory languished under Nazi censorship, Franz Kafka covertly circulated through occupied France and soon emerged as a cultural icon, read by the most influential intellectuals of the time as a prophet of the rampant bureaucracy, totalitarian oppression, and absurdity that branded the twentieth century. In tracing the history of Kafkas reception in postwar France, John T. Hamilton explores how the work of a German-Jewish writer from Prague became a modern classic capable of addressing universal themes of the human condition. Hamilton also considers how Kafka's unique literary corpus came to stimulate reflection in diverse movements, critical approaches, and philosophical schools, from surrealism and existentialism through psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and structuralism to Marxism, deconstruction, and feminism. The story of Kafkas afterlife in Paris thus furnishes a key chapter in the unfolding of French theory, which continues to guide how we read literature and understand its relationship to the world.

Reviews

Kafka lovers who are inclined to emulate their hero had better be en garde while opening this book: Kafka wrote, 'There is no having, only a being, only a state of being that craves the last breath.' John Hamiltons France/Kafka is literally breathtaking in its historical sense, theoretical finesse, and visual intelligence, observant of the finest telling detail. I risked danger and read France/Kafka in one go and with unstinting joy: there is no finer criticclose reader and philosopherthan John Hamilton, who, in Kafka and France, has found his predestined subject. * Stanley Corngold, Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature, Princeton University, USA *
France/Kafka: An Author in Theory shows John T. Hamilton at a new peak of his scholarly powers and demonstrates what Comparative Literature can accomplish today. An elegant dance in French, German, and English, Hamiltons book provides a comprehensive reconstruction of Kafkas aerolithic impact within the French intellectual context from surrealism and existentialism to feminism and deconstruction. Kafka, who considered himself a spiritual son of Gustave Flaubert, turns out to be the elusive godfather of French theory. While unfolding an erudite dossier of a century of cultural history, France/Kafka discreetly designs its own literary theory, revealing all reading as bersetzung. Franz Kafka is an author in continued translation: John T. Hamilton passes on the Imperial Message for the 21st century. * Eckart Goebel, Professor for Comparative Literature, University of Tbingen, Germany *

Author Bio

John T. Hamilton is William R. Kenan Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Harvard University, USA. He is the author of seven books, including most recently Philology of the Flesh (University of Chicago Press, 2018) and Complacency: Classics and its Displacement in Higher Education. (University of Chicago Press, 2022).