Tag Archives: Max Brod

Prague German Writers: German Literature Month

An introductory guest post at Beauty is a Sleeping Cat November is German Literature Month and there has already been a lot going on at blogs such as Beauty is a Sleeping Cat. The first part of my own contribution went up as a guest post on that excellent blog as an introduction to the […]

Continue Reading

Literary roundup: Kafka’s trial’s end, new Czech translations and velvet divorcees

The trial over the fate of the Kafka manuscripts left in Max Brod’s possession, that he bequeathed to his secretary Esther Hoffe, has finally reached a settlement. The judge ruled that the manuscripts should go to Israel’s National Library, though of course Hoffe’s surviving daughter will appeal until the end of her own life, after […]

Continue Reading

Greetings from Gloomy Pre-Fascist Prague

In the latest issue of The Literary Review Alex Stein has an interview with Egyptian poet Yahia Lababidi that orbits around the figures of Georges Bataille, Baudelaire and Kafka. The first notable thing about this piece is that Stein has opted to rewrite some of Lababidi’s words to, as he states at the outset, “make […]

Continue Reading

Kafka manuscript tales: comedy, conspiracy and contracts

One of the features of Franz Kafka’s writing that some critics have had the biggest difficulty coming to terms with is his ability to take the reader from dark, despairing moments to scenes of almost slapstick comedy and then back again, sometimes in an instant, revealing parallels that both mock our sense of tragedy and […]

Continue Reading