Franz Kafka: The Poet of Shame and Guilt

by Saul Friedländer

From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a highly original and engaging appraisal of Kafka’s life, work, legacy, and thought

Franz Kafka was the poet of his own disorder. Throughout his life he struggled with a pervasive sense of shame and guilt that left traces in his daily existence—in his many letters, in his extensive diaries, and especially in his fiction. This stimulating book investigates some of the sources of Kafka’s personal anguish and its complex reflections in his imaginary world.

In his query, Saul Friedländer probes major aspects of Kafka’s life (family, Judaism, love and sex, writing, illness, and despair) that until now have been skewed by posthumous censorship. Contrary to Kafka’s dying request that all his papers be burned, Max Brod, Kafka’s closest friend and literary executor, edited and published the author’s novels and other works soon after his death in 1924. Friedländer shows that, when reinserted in Kafka’s letters and diaries, deleted segments lift the mask of “sainthood” frequently attached to the writer and thus restore previously hidden aspects of his individuality.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Jewish, Literary Criticism, Judaism, History, Criticism

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Saul Friedländer (Hebrew: שאול פרידלנדר) is an Israeli/French historian and a professor emeritus of history at UCLA.

Reviews

[Meike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is just great fun to read and very informative: Friedländer meditates on the various connections between Kafka's life and the events he describes in his books, and the text remains concise.

[freddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

i am dirty, milena, infinitely dirty, this is why i scream so much about purity. no one sings as purely as those who inhabit the deepest hell— what we take to be the song of angels is their song.
this sure was a book!! i thought it was very interesting 👍 i feel lots of shame & i love kafka so this was very good to read

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a pleasure to see the great historian of the Holocaust give us his thoughts on one of the greatest Jewish authors of the twentieth century: Kafka. The author isn’t strikingly original in the small book but certainly provides readers with close readings of some of Kafka’s key texts. The author’s analysis of sexuality in both Kafka’s life and work are particularly acute. I look forward to reading the author’s book on Proust in the near future.

[Kerry Pickens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a part of a Jewish Lives series published by Yale University Press, and the author Saul Friedlander won the Pulitzer for "The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945." The book is very academic, and although 200 pages long contains 20 pages of references. The quote from Marx that I found interesting was "what havoc literature creates in certain heads. It is like monkeys leaping about in the treetops, instead of staying firmly on the ground." There are a lot of monkeys leaping in this book as there are many theories that his writing expressed conflict between the father and son, rejection by family members, homoeroticism, sadomasochism, and Gnosticism. Marx seemed to suffer an anxiety disorder as he could not tolerate sounds and was a hypochondriac. There is speculation that he was schizoid or had a personality disorder. Whatever the case, he had a brilliant mind. The irony is that he died at age 40 from tuberculosis. Although he is considered one of the most influential writers of the 20th century to the point that his name has become an adjective for an oppressive nightmarish style of writing, he had no recognition during his lifetime.

[Turtelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Im Februar 1922 kehrte Kafka nach Prag zurück, und im September gab er die Arbeit am Schloß-Roman endgültig auf."

Wie viele Literaturliebhaber würden nicht alles dafür tun, um in der Zeit zurückreisen zu können, um Kafka dazu zu zwingen "Das Schloß" zu vollenden?!? Jedesmal wenn ich den Satz lese, bleibt mein Herz kurz stehen... :0 Aber gut...

Das Bild von Kafka, das Max Brod in sicherlich mühevoller Kleinstarbeit über Jahre erschaffen hat, wird von Saul Friedländer, mit diesem Werk, mit Ziegelsteinen eingeschlagen. Nie wieder wird man Kafkas Werke so lesen wie zuvor...

Kafka homesexuell? Kafka als Sadomaso, also Masochist, und und und? Irgendwoher müssen seine Werke ja stammen, aus den tiefsten Abgründen der menschlichen Seele so wie es ausschaut!

Das Buch ist gar keine leichte Lektüre, bei manchen Sachen und Argumentationsketten bin ich ausgestiegen. Trotzdem erfährt man von Friedländer so geballt viel vom wahren Kafka, wie kaum von jemandem. Mit Sicherheit nicht von Max Brod!

So viel Geschichte hat er miterlebt und doch hat es ihn nicht wirklich allzusehr interessiert, unglaublich eigentlich.

Also wie war das nochmal mit dem Schloß-Roman... AHHHHHHHH!!!

[Justin Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meandering, aimless, but perfectly entertaining short life.

[W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friedlander is a perceptive and expressive writer. There is hardly a dull paragraph here, let alone a dull page, which is just as well, because the book is short, and unfortunately it ends in a sort of sudden gasp. Yet he picks up on a great variety of ideas and facets to Kafka's life, and anyone who is familiar with the stories should appreciate that.

One facet hints at a very disturbing theory about FK - the writer seems correct to include this, having noticed some potential evidence for it. But it is left hanging somewhat, and as such it casts a shadow over the rest of the work. In the same chapter there is an unconvincing degree of association between physical punishment/torture and pleasure - Kafka's interest in the former could more easily be explained by his fear of it.

The section on Judaism is superb. This is not surprising when you look at the background of the author. And yet, even though this book is written as a part of the series 'Jewish Lives', Friedlander concludes with great honesty that Kafka was not only ambivalent about his cultural background, but actively sought to prevent it influencing his texts.

There are a few other issues in chapter 4, when the author's vocation as historian rather than literary critic is perhaps most evident. On page 107 (hardback, discussing A Country Doctor) he says that 'The outer blanket of snow, of a white shroud, could be an intimation of death', which is just weak and unnecessary. On page 113 (again regarding A Country Doctor): 'the groom and the horses... were sent by such an unknown entity' - but why?! The discussion of a demiurge (or Fate) later in the book may explain a little of what he was thinking, but not how it enters into this analysis. On a couple of occasions, such as page 113, Friedlander says that Joseph K. shouts before his execution, and this is mistaken. Similarly he describes Franz's briefe an Felice as 'almost daily' when for much of the correspondence they were sent 2 or 3 times per day! Small, human errors shake the confidence of the reader.

Kafka's life story is almost as fascinating and mysterious as his fiction. But Friedlander is astute to point out, at the end of his first chapter, that Franz and all writers must necessarily exacerbate and dramatise their life experiences in order to create texts which surpass the earthliness of a single human life. At times the biographer forgets that, when he insists on transplanting events into stories, and on directly translating Kafka's symbols into their supposed 'reality' (and this is something else Friedlander warns against elsewhere!). But despite all my complaints, the writer combines curiosity, information, and interpretation to great effect, producing something readable and possibly inspiring.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Historian Saul Friedlander published a biography of Franz Kafka which is subtitled The Poet of Shame in 2013. Friedlander’s biography of Kafka is for Yale University Press and the Leon D. Black Foundation's Jewish Lives series. Friedlander views this book as a “biographical essay” (Friedlander 10) about Kafka. I read the book on my Kindle. The first chapter is on Kafka's complex relationship with his family, especially with his father, who was named Hermann Kafka. The second chapter is about Kafka's complex relationship with Judaism. The third chapter is about Kafka’s complex sexual life and his sexual fantasies. The fourth chapter is a study of Kafka’s short story entitled “The Country Doctor” and what the story shows about the religious worldview of Kafka (Friedlander 117). The fifth chapter is on Kafka’s life as a writer. The sixth chapter is on Kafka's death and several final thoughts from Friedlander on the meanings of Kafka's writings. Even though, Friedlander’s biography of Kafka is not structured similarly to a more ‘traditional’ biography of a person, I feel like the reader gets a good sense of Kafka as a person and as a writer. Franz Kafka was a very complex person. Saul Friedlander’s “biographical essay” (Friedlander 10) of Franz Kafka is interesting and readable.

[Balthasar Bustos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great biography. The Max Brod biography certainly has its qualities - not in the least the fact that the author himself was an outstanding writer and intellectual, like Kafka - but also suffers from Brod being biased and omitting important information. Friedländer is a thorough exegete and a brilliant analyst; he's read much of the important literature that in the course of time has been written about Kafka and his work and makes an excellent selection. His writing is clever and interesting. His judgement always well-argued and nuanced. And I think he was right on with his assesment of Kafka being, above all, a writer of his own desorientation, and not so much a builder of systems and theories.

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been intrigued by Franz Kafka. Learning more about how his choices fit into his community was very enlightening. The author weaves together all his stories to support his statements and includes excerpts from other biographies. The author's background, as a Jewish man whose family came from Prague also, really made connections for me.

[Osman Tümay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kafka okuduğunuz kadar onun hakkında yazılanları da okursunuz, belki daha bile çok; onu tanımak için alabileceğiniz her desteğin başınızın üstünde yeri vardır. Bu kitabın da orada müstesna bir yeri olmalı, biraz sarsılmayı göze alıyorsanız eğer…

[Poetforlost · Rating 1 out of 5]

The one star is for absolutely terrible job Saul did at grasping who Kafka was.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was very engaging and entertaining. some of the parts focused on Kafka's Jewish identity had a lot of jargon and were hard to understand. otherwise fairly accessible. i wish it was longer.

[James Thomas Nugent · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this interesting but a little bit reductionist.

Strong suggestion by the author that Kafka had paedophilic tendencies, which is quite sad to hear.

[Carlos Irizarry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Bio piece focused on Kafka the man and his inner trauma of sex and myth. This bio seemed to lean on Kafka being closeted in a number of ways. Contradiction, yet not quite dualism seemed for Kafka a force not yet spent no matter what activity he did or didn't do. This inability to square away things, to be at ease is a marker of the modern age that was arriving during Kafka's lifetime. Being unsure as a thought, and uneasy principle. Self consumption of the self concentrating. But there are always more then one.

[Thiago Blumenthal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it focuses way too much on associating Kafka's life events to his work, in a shallow strategy to analyze some stories, this biography is mandatory to any Kafka's aficionado since it resolves some flaws from the diaries edited by Max Brod, by using the new German editions and comparing them to whatever Brod had omitted or changed.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressive, tightly written and intelligent cultural/critical biography. After reading two, I want to read more in this fascinating "Jewish Lives" series from Yale University Press.

[Susu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friedländer schlägt einige neuartige Ansichten zu Kafka, seinem Werk und seinem Leben vor. Er liebt den Autor, dessen Werk. Extrem interessant und nicht immer ganz einfach.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhere between literary criticism, contextual history, and biography. Uses Kafka's life circumstances in analysis of his work. For only 161 pages manages to present a lot of angles.

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

alright...