First Sorrow

First Sorrow is one of four stories of Franz Kafka from the 1924 published anthology A hunger artist, who was the last book before his death. It is an ironic story "of ecstasy and terrors of the artists existence."

Summary

The story tells of a trapeze artist in vaudeville who lives increasingly only high up in the dome trapeze, his exercises operates and no longer wants to descend. The problem is the relocation of the variety shows, because he has to leave the trapeze and travel. On such a journey, he confronts his very worried about him impresario urgently so that he will need from now on always two trapezoids simultaneously. The impresario admits him immediately, but he suspects also likely to become increasingly troubling thoughts of trapeze artist and recognizes the signs of age in the form of wrinkles on the otherwise childish forehead.

Text analysis

First Section

In contrast to the other two artists stories from the hunger artist band here is solely the trapeze artist and his direct vaudeville environment, but not shown the audience. This gives the impression of art as an inwardly directed end in itself arises only for the edification of the artist. The trapeze artist has been in contact with persons who ascend to him in the dome or to his impresario. Among the most beautiful moments in the life of impresario turn it belongs when the trapeze artist 's return to a journey into the trapezium dome. It reads touching, but what aberration of life priorities speaks of it.

Second Section

The desire for a second trapeze, which is sung with much emotion from the trapeze artists, the impresario advocates immediately. The harmony between the two in this issue and the surprise to be so far been only come with a trapezoid, shown by the fact that the tears of the trapeze artist also wet the face of the impresario. But the impresario dissolves simultaneously from its dependence on the artist because he sees an existential threat posed by aging it in mind. So far, the trapeze artist was in his youthful agility for a Variety of "extraordinary and irreplaceable artists ". Now the end of this era is emerging.

View

Here is a view similar to the story of the hunger artist with the last sentence opened the back contains its own story. It is likely that the aging artist no longer the previous extravagances be granted because of its dwindling appeal. The impresario who has treated him as a sensitive, deified son, to take on new successful artists of his variety shows. Moreover, it is feared that the artist is no longer handle the total trapeze artist's existence in the dome in old age and will inevitably subside more and more also be in his art.

Interpretation of Title

Whose First Sorrow is portrayed here? The artist has often suffered when he had to leave the trapeze. He suddenly feels himself the age of terror and therefore wants a second trapeze as a kind of antidote? Or it is the first sorrow of the impresario in dealing with the artist, to whom he is very close, but with increasing age for him is worthless?

Interpretive approaches

The short story was in the spring of 1922 and first appeared in the fall of 1922 in the journal Genius. Kafka has estimated that the narrative up and calling it a " disgusting little story ." Nevertheless, he built it in 1924 in his last short story collection A Hunger Artist. As far as one can evaluate as a reader here, you have to give Kafka right. The story does not have the urgency and complexity of the other two artists stories of the band. There you may lack depth; like trying someone else in the style of Kafka's writing and this almost reached. On the other hand, it captivates by its pure sparse structure.

The story is also a statement about Kafka's life rhythm. The lingering in the trapezoidal dome corresponds to the phases of writing, the inevitable descent to the requirements set by the hated everyday of it. In the extremely caring impresario 's friend Max Brod to be visible. The friend is defined in the narrative as a business relationship. He sees the signs of decay ( Kafka's disease) and doubts the other artistic creations.

Kafka has been increasingly employed in the course of his life with Judaism. Due to his former readings in this direction, you can see the trapeze artist as a symbol of the assimilated Western Jews, who got rid of his religious identity in contrast to the Eastern Jews with his grip.

Expenditure

  • A Hunger Artist. Four stories. Publisher The Forge, Berlin, 1924. ( First edition )
  • All narratives. Edited by Paul Raabe. Fischer -Taschenbuch -Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1970, ISBN 3- 596-21078 -X.
  • The narratives. Original Version, Edited by Roger Herms. Fischer Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-596-13270-3.

Secondary literature

  • Peter- André Alt: Franz Kafka: The eternal Son. A biography. C. H. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-53441-4.
  • Bernd Aurochs: A Hunger Artist. Four stories. In: Manfred Engel, Bernd aurochs (ed.): Kafka manual. Life - Work - effect. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02167-0, pp. 318-329.
  • Manfred Engel: To Kafka's art and literary theory. In: Manfred Engel, Bernd aurochs (ed.): Kafka manual. Life - Work - effect. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02167-0, pp. 483-498, esp 486 f
  • Joachim Unseld: Franz Kafka A writer lives. Carl Hanser Verlag, 1982, ISBN 3-446-13568-5 Ln
A Little Woman
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