Editing Franz Kafka (section)

== Works ==
{{further|Franz Kafka bibliography}}

[[File:De Kafka Brief an den Vater 001.jpg|thumb|upright|First page of Kafka's [[Letter to His Father]]|alt=an old letter with text written in German]]

All of Kafka's published works were written in German. What little was published during his lifetime attracted scant public attention.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Kafka finished none of his full-length novels and burned around 90 percent of his work,<ref>{{cite news |last=Batuman|first=Elif|author-link=Elif Batuman|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html |url-access=limited |date=22 September 2010 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|title=Kafka's Last Trial |access-date=3 August 2012 |ref={{sfnRef|''New York Times''|2010}} |archive-date=5 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190705202826/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Stach|2005|p=2}} much of it during the period he lived in Berlin with Diamant, who helped him burn the drafts.{{sfn|Murray|2004|pp=367}} In his early years as a writer he was influenced by von Kleist, whose work he described in a letter to Bauer as frightening and whom he considered closer than his own family.{{sfn|Furst|1992|p=84}}

The first mention of Kafka's work was in an article by Max Brod on February 9, 1907 in the Berlin weekly ''Die Gegenwart'', two years prior to his first publication. Brod would write about his friend again in 1921 in an essay entitled "Der Dichter Frank Kafka".{{sfn|Ackermann|1950|p=106}}

=== Stories ===
<!-- Kafka was a prolific writer of short stories. Some of his published texts were named {{lang|de|Erzählung}} (literally: narrative), others {{lang|de|Geschichte}} (literally: story). Some stories are relatively long; others are a single paragraph. His oldest surviving story is "Der Unredliche in seinem Herzen" ("The Impure in His Heart"), translated as "[[Shamefaced Lanky and Impure in Heart]]". It was not published but was part of a [[Letters to Family, Friends, and Editors (Franz Kafka)|letter to his friend]] [[Oskar Pollak]] in 1902. -->Kafka's earliest published works were eight stories that appeared in 1908 in the first issue of the literary journal ''[[Hyperion (journal)|Hyperion]]'' under the title {{lang|de|[[Betrachtung]]}} (''Contemplation''). He wrote the story "{{lang|de|[[Beschreibung eines Kampfes]]|italic=no}}" ("Description of a Struggle"){{efn|"{{lang|de|Kampf|italic=no}}" also translates to "fight".}} in 1904; in 1905 he showed it to Brod, who advised him to continue writing and convinced him to submit it to ''Hyperion''. Kafka published a fragment in 1908{{sfn|Pawel|1985|pp=160–163}} and two sections in the spring of 1909, all in Munich.{{sfn|Brod|1966|p=388}}

In a creative outburst on the night of 22 September 1912, Kafka wrote the story "Das Urteil" ("The Judgment", literally: "The Verdict") and dedicated it to Felice Bauer. Brod noted the similarity in names of the main character and his fictional fiancée, Georg Bendemann and Frieda Brandenfeld, to Franz Kafka and Felice Bauer.{{sfn|Brod|1966|ps = 114f}} The story is often considered Kafka's breakthrough work. It deals with the troubled relationship of a son and his dominant father, facing a new situation after the son's engagement.{{sfn|Ernst|2010}}{{sfn|Hawes|2008|pp=159, 192}} Kafka later described writing it as "a complete opening of body and soul",{{sfn|Stach|2005|p=113}} a story that "evolved as a true birth, covered with filth and slime".{{sfn|Brod|1960|p=129}} The story was first published in Leipzig in 1912 and dedicated "to Miss Felice Bauer", and in subsequent editions "for F."{{sfn|Brod|1966|p=389}}

In 1912, Kafka wrote ''Die Verwandlung'' (''[[The Metamorphosis]]'', or ''The Transformation''),{{sfn|Brod|1966|p=113}} published in 1915 in Leipzig. The story begins with a travelling salesman waking to find himself transformed into an {{lang|de|ungeheures Ungeziefer|italic=yes}}, a monstrous [[vermin]], {{lang|de|Ungeziefer|italic=yes}} being a general term for unwanted and unclean pests, especially insects. Critics regard the work as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century.{{sfn|Sokel|1956|pp=203–214}}{{sfn|Luke|1951|pp=232–245}}{{sfn|Dodd|1994|pp=165–168}} The story "[[In der Strafkolonie]]" ("In the Penal Colony"), dealing with an elaborate [[torture]] and execution device, was written in October 1914,{{sfn|Brod|1966|p=389}} revised in 1918, and published in Leipzig during October 1919. The story "[[Ein Hungerkünstler]]" ("A Hunger Artist"), published in the periodical {{lang|de|[[Die neue Rundschau]]}} in 1924, describes a victimized protagonist who experiences a decline in the appreciation of his strange craft of [[hunger artist|starving himself for extended periods]].{{sfn|Gray|2005|p=131}} His last story, "[[Josefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse]]" ("Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk"), also deals with the relationship between an artist and his audience.{{sfn|Horstkotte|2009}}

=== Novels ===

[[File:Kafka's notebook.JPG|alt=Franz Kafka Notebook with words in German and Hebrew. from the Collection of the National Library of Israel.|thumb|Franz Kafka notebook with words in German and Hebrew. From the Collection of the [[National Library of Israel|National Library]] of Israel.]]

Kafka began his first novel in 1912;{{sfn|Brod|1960|p=113}} its first chapter is the story "[[Der Heizer]]" ("The Stoker"). He called the work, which remained unfinished, {{lang|de|Der Verschollene}} (''The Man Who Disappeared'' or ''The Missing Person''), but when Brod published it after Kafka's death he named it ''[[Amerika (novel)|Amerika]]''.{{sfn|Brod|1960|pp=128, 135, 218}} The inspiration for the novel was the time Kafka spent in the audience of Yiddish theatre the previous year, bringing him to a new awareness of his heritage, which led to the thought that an innate appreciation for one's heritage lives deep within each person.{{sfn|Koelb|2010|p=34}} More explicitly humorous and slightly more realistic than most of Kafka's works, the novel shares the [[Motif (narrative)|motif]] of an oppressive and intangible system putting the protagonist repeatedly in bizarre situations.{{sfn|Sussman|1979|pp=72–94}} It uses many details of experiences from his relatives who had emigrated to America{{sfn|Stach|2005|p=79}} and is the only work for which Kafka considered an optimistic ending.{{sfn|Brod|1960|p=137}}

In 1914 Kafka began the novel {{lang|de|[[Der Process]]}} (''The Trial''),{{sfn|Brod|1966|p=388}} the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader. He did not complete the novel, although he finished the final chapter. According to [[List of Nobel laureates in Literature|Nobel Prize-winning]] author [[Elias Canetti]], Felice is central to the plot of ''Der Process'' and Kafka said it was "her story".{{sfn|Stach|2005|pp=108–115, 147, 139, 232}}{{sfn|Kakutani|1988}} Canetti titled his book on Kafka's letters to Felice ''Kafka's Other Trial'', in recognition of the relationship between the letters and the novel.{{sfn|Kakutani|1988}} [[Michiko Kakutani]] notes in a review for ''[[The New York Times]]'' that Kafka's letters have the "earmarks of his fiction: the same nervous attention to minute particulars; the same paranoid awareness of shifting balances of power; the same atmosphere of emotional suffocation—combined, surprisingly enough, with moments of boyish ardour and delight."{{sfn|Kakutani|1988}}

According to his diary, Kafka was already planning his novel {{lang|de|[[Das Schloss]]}} (''The Castle''), by 11 June 1914; however, he did not begin writing it until 27 January 1922.{{sfn|Brod|1966|p=388}} The protagonist is the {{lang|de|Landvermesser|italic=no}} (land surveyor) named K., who struggles for unknown reasons to gain access to the mysterious authorities of a castle who govern the village. Kafka's intent was that the castle's authorities notify K. on his deathbed that his "legal claim to live in the village was not valid, yet, taking certain auxiliary circumstances into account, he was to be permitted to live and work there".{{sfn|Boyd|2004|p= 139}} Dark and at times [[Surrealism|surreal]], the novel is focused on [[Social alienation|alienation]], [[bureaucracy]], the seemingly endless frustrations of man's attempts to stand against the system, and the futile and hopeless pursuit of an unattainable goal. Hartmut M. Rastalsky noted in his thesis: "Like dreams, his texts combine precise 'realistic' detail with absurdity, careful observation and reasoning on the part of the protagonists with inexplicable obliviousness and carelessness."{{sfn|Rastalsky|1997|p= 1}}

=== Drawings ===

[[File:Franz Kafka - Der Denker.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Der Denker, by Franz Kafka]]

Kafka drew and sketched extensively. His interest in art grew from 1901 to 1906. He "practiced drawing, took drawing classes, attended art history lectures, and sought to establish a connection to Prague's artistic circles".{{sfn|Granta|1992}} According to Max Brod, Kafka "was even more indifferent, or perhaps better, more hostile to his drawings than he was to his literary production".{{sfn|Granta|1992}} As he did with his writings, Kafka asked in his testament for his drawings to be destroyed.{{sfn|Testament|1999}} Brod preserved all of Kafka's drawings that Kafka gave him or that he could rescue from the wastebasket or otherwise, but "[a]nything that I didn't rescue was destroyed".{{sfn|Granta|1992}} Until May 2021, only about 40 of his drawings were known.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sawicki |first1=Nicholas |title=Kafka, the Artist |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/kafka-the-artist/ |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |date=29 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Schmid|first=Franziska |title=Trove of Kafka's drawings reveals his 'cheerful side' |url=https://www.futurity.org/franz-kafka-drawings-2671862-2/ |website=Futurity |date=16 December 2021}}</ref> In 2022, [[Yale University Press]] published ''Franz Kafka: The Drawings''.<ref>''Franz Kafka: The Drawings'', edited by Andreas Kilcher, in collaboration with Pavel Schmidt ; with essays by Judith Butler and Andreas Kilcher; translations from the German by Kurt Beals. [https://www.nybooks.com/online/2022/07/19/kafkas-inkblots/ Review]</ref> The book brought to light about 150 sketches by Kafka.{{sfn|Wolfe|2022}}

=== Publishing history ===

[[File:Kafka Betrachtung 1912.jpg|thumb|upright|First edition of {{lang|de|[[Betrachtung]]}}, 1912|alt=A simple book cover displays the name of the book and the author]]

Kafka's stories were initially published in literary periodicals. His first eight were printed in 1908 in the first issue of the bi-monthly ''Hyperion''.{{sfn|Itk|2008}} [[Franz Blei]] published two dialogues in 1909 which became part of "Beschreibung eines Kampfes" ("Description of a Struggle").{{sfn|Itk|2008}} A fragment of the story "[[Die Aeroplane in Brescia]]" ("The Aeroplanes at Brescia"), written on a trip to Italy with Brod, appeared in the daily ''[[Bohemia (newspaper)|Bohemia]]'' on 28 September 1909.{{sfn|Itk|2008}}{{sfn|Brod|1966|p=94}} On 27 March 1910, several stories that later became part of the book {{lang|de|[[Betrachtung]]}} were published in the Easter edition of ''Bohemia''.{{sfn|Itk|2008}}{{sfn|Brod|1966|p=61}} In Leipzig during 1913, Brod and publisher [[Kurt Wolff (publisher)|Kurt Wolff]] included "{{lang|de|Das Urteil. Eine Geschichte von Franz Kafka.|italic=no}}" ("The Judgment. A Story by Franz Kafka.") in their literary yearbook for the art poetry ''Arkadia''. In the same year, Wolff published "[[Der Heizer]]" ("The Stoker") in the Jüngste Tag series, where it enjoyed three printings.{{sfn|Stach|2005|p=343}} The story "{{lang|de|[[Vor dem Gesetz]]|italic=no}}" ("Before the Law") was published in the 1915 New Year's edition of the independent Jewish weekly {{lang|de|Selbstwehr}}; it was reprinted in 1919 as part of the story collection {{lang|de|[[A Country Doctor (collection)|Ein Landarzt]]}} (''A Country Doctor'') and became part of the novel {{lang|de|Der Process}}. Other stories were published in various publications, including [[Martin Buber]]'s ''[[Der Jude]]'', the paper {{lang|cs|[[Prager Tagblatt]]}}, and the periodicals {{lang|de|[[Die neue Rundschau]]}}, ''Genius'', and ''[[Prager Presse]]''.{{sfn|Itk|2008}}

Kafka's first published book, {{lang|de|Betrachtung}} (''Contemplation'', or ''Meditation''), was a collection of 18{{nbsp}}stories written between 1904 and 1912. On a summer trip to [[Weimar]], Brod initiated a meeting between Kafka and Kurt Wolff;{{sfn|Brod|1966|p=110}} Wolff published {{lang|de|Betrachtung}} in the {{lang|de|[[Rowohlt Verlag]]}} at the end of 1912 (with the year given as 1913).{{sfn|European Graduate School, Articles|2012}} Kafka dedicated it to Brod, "{{lang|de|Für M.B.|italic=no}}", and added in the personal copy given to his friend "{{lang|de|So wie es hier schon gedruckt ist, für meinen liebsten Max{{nsmdns}}Franz K.|italic=no}}" ("As it is already printed here, for my dearest Max").{{sfn|Brod|1966|p=115}}

Kafka's novella ''Die Verwandlung'' (''The Metamorphosis'') was first printed in the October 1915 issue of {{lang|de|[[Die Weißen Blätter]]}}, a monthly edition of [[expressionist]] literature, edited by [[René Schickele]].{{sfn|European Graduate School, Articles|2012}} Another story collection, {{lang|de|Ein Landarzt}} (''A Country Doctor''), was published by Kurt Wolff in 1919,{{sfn|European Graduate School, Articles|2012}} dedicated to Kafka's father.{{sfn|Leiter|1958|pp=337–347}} Kafka prepared a final collection of four stories for print, {{lang|de|Ein Hungerkünstler}} ''(A Hunger Artist)'', which appeared in 1924 after his death, in {{lang|de|[[Verlag Die Schmiede]]}}. On 20 April 1924, the {{lang|de|[[Berliner Börsen-Courier]]}} published Kafka's essay on [[Adalbert Stifter]].{{sfn|Krolop|1994|p=103}}

==== Max Brod ====
[[File:Kafka Der Prozess 1925.jpg|thumb|upright|First edition of {{lang|de|[[The Trial|Der Prozess]]}}, 1925|alt=A simple book cover in green displays the name of the author and the book]]

At the time of his death, Kafka's works were probably known only to a small circle of Czech and German writers.{{sfn|Ackermann|1950|p=105}} Kafka left his work, both published and unpublished, to his friend and [[literary executor]] [[Max Brod]] with explicit instructions that it should be destroyed on Kafka's death; Kafka wrote: "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me{{nbsp}}... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread."{{sfn|Kafka|1988|loc = publisher's notes}}{{sfn|McCarthy|2009}} Brod ignored this request and published the novels and collected works between 1925 and 1935. Brod defended his action by claiming that he had told Kafka, "I shall not carry out your wishes", and that "Franz should have appointed another executor if he had been absolutely determined that his instructions should stand".<ref>Diamant, Kathi, ''Kafka's Last Love: The Mystery of Dora Diamant'', p. 132.</ref>

Brod took many of Kafka's papers, which remain unpublished, with him in suitcases to Palestine when he fled there in 1939.{{sfn|Butler|2011|pp=3–8}} Kafka's last lover, [[Dora Diamant]] (later, Dymant-Lask), also ignored his wishes, secretly keeping 20{{nbsp}}notebooks and 35{{nbsp}}letters. These were confiscated by the [[Gestapo]] in 1933, but scholars continue to search for them.{{sfn|Kafka Project SDSU|2012}}

As Brod published the bulk of the writings in his possession,{{sfn|Contijoch|2000}} Kafka's work began to attract wider attention and critical acclaim. Brod found it difficult to arrange Kafka's notebooks in chronological order. One problem was that Kafka often began writing in different parts of the book; sometimes in the middle, sometimes working backwards from the end.{{sfn|Kafka|2009|p= xxvii}}{{sfn|Diamant|2003|p=144}} Brod finished many of Kafka's incomplete works for publication. For example, Kafka left {{lang|de|Der Process}} with unnumbered and incomplete chapters and {{lang|de|Das Schloss}} with incomplete sentences and ambiguous content;{{sfn|Diamant|2003|p=144}} Brod rearranged chapters, copy-edited the text, and changed the punctuation. {{lang|de|Der Process}} appeared in 1925 in {{lang|de|Verlag Die Schmiede}}. Kurt Wolff published two other novels, {{lang|de|Das Schloss}} in 1926 and ''Amerika'' in 1927. In 1931, Brod edited a collection of prose and unpublished stories as ''[[The Great Wall of China (collection)|The Great Wall of China]]'', including the titular short story [[The Great Wall of China (short story)|<!--Per [[WP:OFTHESAMENAME-->"The Great Wall of China"]]. The book appeared in the [[Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag]]. Brod's sets are usually called the "Definitive Editions".{{sfn|Classe|2000|p=749}}

==== Modern editions ====
In 1961 [[Malcolm Pasley]] acquired for the [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] [[Bodleian Library]] most of Kafka's original handwritten works.{{sfn|Jewish Heritage|2012}}{{sfn|Kafka|1998|loc = publisher's notes}} The text for {{lang|de|Der Process}} was later purchased through auction and is stored at the German Literary Archives in [[Marbach am Neckar]], Germany.{{sfn|Kafka|1998|loc = publisher's notes}}{{sfn|O'Neill|2004|p=681}} Subsequently, Pasley headed a team (including Gerhard Neumann, Jost Schillemeit and Jürgen Born) which reconstructed the German novels; {{lang|de|[[S. Fischer Verlag]]|italic=no}} republished them.{{sfn|Adler|1995}} Pasley was the editor for {{lang|de|Das Schloss}}, published in 1982, and {{lang|de|Der Process}} (''The Trial''), published in 1990. Jost Schillemeit was the editor of {{lang|de|Der Verschollene}} ({{lang|de|Amerika}}) published in 1983. These are called the "Critical Editions" or the "Fischer Editions".{{sfn|Oxford Kafka Research Centre|2012}}

In 2023, the first unexpurgated edition of [[Franz Kafka's Diaries|Kafka's diaries]] was published in English,<ref>Kafka, Franz, ''The Diaries'', translated by [[Ross Benjamin]], New York: [[Schocken Books]], 2023.</ref> "more than three decades after this complete text appeared in German. The sole previous English edition, with Brod's edits, was issued in the late 1940s".<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/books/kafka-diaries.html "The Kafka You Never Knew"] (Review by [[Dwight Garner]] of [[Ross Benjamin]]'s translation of Kafka's Diaries), ''[[The New York Times]]'', 11 January 2023.</ref> The new edition revealed that Brod had expunged homoerotic references, and negative comments about Eastern European Jews.{{sfn|Benjamin|2024}}

==== Unpublished papers ====
When Brod died in 1968, he left Kafka's unpublished papers, which are believed to number in the thousands, to his secretary [[Esther Hoffe]].{{sfn|''Guardian''|2010}} She released or sold some, but left most to her daughters, Eva and Ruth, who also refused to release the papers. A court battle began in 2008 between the sisters and the [[National Library of Israel]], which claimed these works became the property of the nation of Israel when Brod emigrated to [[British Palestine]] in 1939. Esther Hoffe sold the original manuscript of {{lang|de|Der Process}} for US$2&nbsp;million in 1988 to the German Literary Archive [[Museum of Modern Literature]] in Marbach am Neckar.{{sfn|''New York Times''|2010}}{{sfn|Buehrer|2011}} A ruling by a Tel Aviv family court in 2010 held that the papers must be released and a few were, including a previously unknown story, but the legal battle continued.{{sfn|Lerman|2010}} The Hoffes claim the papers are their personal property, while the National Library of Israel argues they are "cultural assets belonging to the Jewish people".{{sfn|Lerman|2010}} The National Library also suggests that Brod bequeathed the papers to them in his will.{{sfn|Rudoren|Noveck|2012}} The Tel Aviv Family Court ruled in October 2012, six months after Ruth's death, that the papers were the property of the National Library. The Israeli Supreme Court upheld the decision in December 2016.{{sfn|Glazer|2017}}