Constructing China: Kafka's Orientalist Discourse

di Rolf J. Goebel (Autore)

Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1997

Kafka's interest in and use of China establish him as a principal commentator in Western discourse on the Orient. Goebel studies four representative works by Kafka that explore the problems of the Western representation of the Orient: his 'Description of a Struggle'; several letters to Felice Bauer, offering an interpretation of Chinese poetry in connection with the conflict between writing and Kafka's love for Felice; the canonical story 'The Great Wall of China', parodically appropriating sterotypes of China's stagnant history and authoritarian emperors for a refutation of colonialist ideas of progress; and the sequel 'An Old Manuscript', dramatising China's invasion by foreign powers and the breakdown of crosscultural communication. Elucidating these themes from a broadly comparative perspective, Goebel shows Kafka to be one of German modernism's most intriguing and self-reflective writers on the Orient. ROLF J. GOEBEL is Professor of German at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

• Autore: Rolf J. Goebel
• Editore: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
• Collana: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture
• Anno: 1997
• Rilegatura: Hardback
• Pagine: 144 p.
• Dimensioni: 579 x 386 mm
• Peso: 380 gr.
• EAN: 9781571131447

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