The fascination of Kafka's stories borders on the miraculous. In 1945 the poet W. H. Auden remarked that Kafka stands in the same relation to his century as Shakespeare stood to his--he is its representative, the poet who gives it shape and form. It seemed a somewhat extravagant claim to make, but how perceptive it was.Today we might measure the intensity of Kafka's vision by the sheer quantity of hours that men and women devote to the reading and study of his work. There is a bookshop in the center of Prague, just yards away from the Kinsky "palace" where Kafka went to high school and his father had his business in ladies' finery; here, readers from all over the world can be seen poring over the copious new editions and translations of Kafka's work. And to read a story of Kafka's appears to require from the reader that he or she interpret it. ...

In 1945, W. H. Auden remarked that Kafka stands in the same relation to his century as Shakespeare does to his—Kafka is the representative of the twentieth century, the poet who gives it its voice. This Norton Critical Edition is based on new translations by leading Kafka scholar and translator Stanley Corngold. Thirty stories are included, accompanied by detailed annotations.

"Backgrounds and Contexts" offers a glimpse of Kafka’s creative process through extracts from his letters, diaries, and conversations.

"Criticism" collects ten essays on the major stories by Stanley Corngold, Danielle Allen, Walter Hinderer, Walter Sokel, Nicola Gess, Vivian Liska, Benno Wagner, John A. Hargraves, and Gerhard Kurz.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

Preface

The Texts of Kafka's Selected Stories

  The Judgment · A Story

  The Stoker · A Fragment

  In the Penal Colony

 A Country Doctor · Little Stories

 The New Lawyer

 A Country Doctor

 Up in the Gallery

  · A Page from an Old Document

 Before the Law

 Jackals and Arabs

 The Worry of the Father of the Family

 A Fratricide

 A Dream

 A Report to an Academy

 A Starvation Artist · Four Stories

 First Distress

 A Starvation Artist

 Josefine, the Singer or The Mouse People

 [Posthumously Published Stories]

 The Bridge

 The Hunter Gracchus · [Two Fragments]

 Building the Great Wall of China

 The Knock at the Courtyard Gate

 A Crossbreed

 An Everyday Event

 The Silence of the Sirens

 Prometheus

 On the Question of the Laws

 Poseidon

 Researches of a Dog

 A Comment

 On Parables

 The Burrow

Backgrounds and Contexts

  [Letters, Diaries, and Conversations]

Criticism

  Stanley Corngold · [Preface to an Understanding of

 Kafka]

 · In the Circle of "The Judgment"

  Danielle Alien · Sounding Silence

  Walter Hinderer · An Anecdote by Kafka: "A Fratricide"

  Walter Sokel · Identity and the Individual, or Past and

 Present

  Nicola Gess · The Politics of Listening: The Power of

 Song in Kafka's "Josefine, the Singer"

  Vivian Liska ~ Positions: On Franz Kafka's "Poseidon"

  Benno Wagner · "No one indicates the direction":

 The Question of Leadership in Kafka's Later Stories

 John A. Hargraves · Kafka and Silence: An Alternate

View of Music

  Gerhard Kurz · The Rustling of Stillness: Approaches

to Kafka's The Burrow

Franz Kafka: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography