Kafka: Secularism, Multi-lingualism and World Literature Taught in English (3 credits) Spring 2014

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1 Professor Michael G. Levine German 470:390 Comp Lit 195: Jewish St. 563:396: College Ave. Office Hrs. Th 4:30-6pm and by app t TTh 2:50-4:10 pm Kafka: Secularism, Multi-lingualism and World Literature Taught in English (3 credits) Spring 2014 Course Description The course will provide an introduction to Kafka's work and its impact on World literature. Kafka s texts constitute a new level and quality of literature that has triggered innumerable responses in many languages, media, and discourses. He is generally recognized as an "international" author of a new type of "world literature." While the quality of the work is clear, it nevertheless tends to defy all attempts to approach it by way of traditional means of interpretation. In an effort to forge new ways of addressing the challenges posed by Kafka's work, the course seeks to locate it in a number of related contexts: at the crossroads of European modernity; within debates about Jewish languages, culture, identity, and music in the early twentieth-century and beyond; at the center of current controversies concerning the politically charged notion of "minor literature;" and perhaps most importantly as the source of inspiration for new works of art, literature, film, and music. Among the works to be considered are the silk-screens of Kafka by Andy Warhol; the introduction to his writing in comix form by Mairowitz and Crumb; the fiction of Jorge Luis Borges, Orhan Pamuk, and JM Coetzee; the music of Philip Glass; and excerpts from German, Czech and Polish film. Books to be purchased: Mairowitz and Crumb Introducing Kafka Kafka s Selected Stories Norton Critical Edition Kafka, The Metamorphosis Bantam Amerika: The Missing Person, trans. Mark Harman The Castle, trans. Mark Harman Orhan Heinrich von Kleist, The Marquise of O and Other Stories Deleuze and Guattari, Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature ISBN: ALL OTHER READINGS AVAILABLE ON SAKAI AT: You can log on using your Net ID and password. If the course does not appear as one of your tabs, please search and add it or contact me and I will grant you access. Some of the reading will be available via Sakai and you are required to print and bring those readings to class on the scheduled days as part of your class participation grade. Please check

2 Sakai frequently for updates, announcements, and resources. You can also communicate with your classmates via Sakai in the Chat Room or pose questions in the Forum. Please make sure also to check Rutgers's, that is, your "eden" accounts. Requirements and Grading Class Participation 10% 3 6-page papers 30% each OR 1 6-page paper 30% 1 12-page research paper 60% Schedule Jan 21 Jan 23 Jan 28 Jan 30 Feb 4 Feb 6 Feb 11 Introduction Kafka, First Distress Kafka and Context Waagenbach, Prague at the Turn of the Century (Sakai) Mairowitz and R Crumb, Introducing Kafka Kafka s Breakthrough Kafka, The Judgment Kafka, The Judgment Hybrids, Misfits and Monstrosities Ovid, The Metamorphoses selection (Sakai) Kafka, The Metamorphosis Kafka, The Metamorphosis A Language of Foreign Words Kafka, An Introductory Talk on the Yiddish Language (Sakai) Bruce, Kafka s Jewish Prague (Sakai) Bruce, The Yiddish Theater (Sakai) Recommended: Suchoff, Kafka s Jewish Languages (Sakai) Feb 13 Feb 18 Fathers and Sons: A Combat of Parasitic Vermin Kafka, Letter to His Father (Sakai) Gordimer, Letter from His Father (Sakai) Names, Translation and Multi-lingualism Koelb The Rhetorical Kafka (Sakai) Kafka, Jackals and Arabs

3 A Page from an Old Document Description of a Struggle (Sakai) Wedding Preparations in the Country (Sakai) A Crossbreed Recommended: Hamacher, The Gesture in the Name: On Benjamin and Kafka (Sakai) FIRST 6-PAGE PAPER DUE Feb 20 Kafka in Amerika Kafka, Amerika: The Missing Person pp Feb 25 Amerika: The Missing Person pp Feb 27 Amerika: The Missing Person pp March 4 Kafka and Minor Literature Kafka, For a Small Literature (Sakai) Deleuze and Guattari, Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature pp March 6 March 11 March 13 Kafka and Minor Literature Deleuze and Guattari, Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature pp Corngold, Kafka and the Dialect of Minor Literature (Sakai) Kafka in Latin Amerika Borges, Everything and Nothing (Sakai) The Congress (Sakai) Kafka and his Precursors (Sakai) The Lottery of Babylon (Sakai) Prologue to The Library of Babel, Franz Kafka: The Vulture (Sakai) Kafka in the Tropics Kafka, In the Penal Colony Glass, In the Penal Colony SECOND 6-PAGE PAPER OR RESEARCH PAPER OUTLINE WITH ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE

4 March 18 March 20 March 25 March 27 Break Break Kafka in the Snow March 31 Apr 1 Apr 3 Apr 8 Apr 10 Apr 15 Apr 17 Apr 22 Apr 24 Apr 29 Kafka between East and West Kafka in South Africa Heinrich von Kleist, Michael Kohlhaas Kafka and Jewish Music Kafka, Josefine, the Singer or the Mouse People Recommended: Anderson, Jewish Music (Sakai) May 1 May 9 The Subterranean Life of the German Language Kafka, The Burrow FINAL 6-PAGE OR RESEARCH PAPER DUE BY 5 P.M. Plagiarism Plagiarism is an extremely serious matter, and can lead to a student s failing the course and being referred to his or her dean for disciplinary action. When referring to ideas other than your own, always acknowledge your sources clearly and completely, whether you

5 are quoting or paraphrasing. Please see the University s policies on academic integrity at and discuss with your instructor any questions you may have about this and related issues.