A Little Woman

A small woman is one of four stories of Franz Kafka from the 1924 published anthology A Hunger Artist. It was the last book he was working on before his death, and there appeared two months after his death.

Summary

The narrator describes a small, yet young woman from his environment. She is described as flirtatious, in dress and demeanor idiosyncratic but rather poor. The problem of woman is that the narrator constantly gives her some form of reason to fret. Again and again the narrator emphasizes that the little woman could just ignore him. He saw in his view no relationship to the woman, and so could the thing be done yet. But the little woman reacts to this proposal particularly excited. She suffers obviously under the described conditions, the polluter is the narrator.

The narrator expected that he would have to justify to the world for what he does to the little woman unintentionally. But he believes that you will not judge him because he is a achtenswertes member of society. The fact that the little woman could possibly be in love with him, he has decided to explain back. The strange constellation consists over the years and the participants get older. The narrator thinks he can hide the disturbing and may that he is his past life quietly continue despite the bluster of the woman.

Text analysis

In a manic monologue, the narrator reports a many -year-long "Un " relationship ( the end is far from sight ) between the narrator and a small woman. The narrator hastens to assure yourself that it is not a love affair on the part of the woman. He at least is her - allegedly - completely opposite alien and indifferent.

He could end the relationship if he " would have recognized as burdock and trampled to the public completely silent under his boots ," the little woman. That may or but he does not. He expects a decision in the matter from the outside. By Fate? of the woman? At least not by yourself How could really decide the woman, she will in any case never leave him. The reader will witness a large displacement. The narrator wants to admit not mean that the behavior of these troublesome for him woman could indicate that she feels strong emotions for him, probably a kind of love-hate. This is precisely what would explain the occurrence and described the sufferings of the woman.

As long as he denies it, he can keep the little woman at a distance, though he frequently deals with her ​​mentally. He wants nothing more than to be quiet life, in coming through the little woman unrest continue.

Language style

What is striking is the language of this story. While Kafka's narrative style often consists of sober progressive movements, behind which lurk but strong emotions, the language here is hectic, without any shattering would happen. The sets are nested in it, how about a Direction piled. Sometimes the meaning is almost lost. The narrator confesses a saying that he is " a little uneasy " has become over the years. The style of language raises a descriptive view of the inner state of the narrator. He described the woman as nervous, sickly, irrational and intrusive. But similar characteristics also appear to have taken along himself.

Biographical interpretation

Kafka wrote this story in October 1923 in Berlin, where he lived with his last girlfriend Dora Diamant. There is the interpretation that he has it processed the difficult relationship with his then- greedy landlord. However, this interpretation is not final strand satisfactory. The described beings, young and poor, not really associated the image of a landlady. While it complains about the narrator, but provides no concrete demands. The ratio between the small woman and the narrator is applied for a long time and not quickly repealed by a change of residence. Then could it rather an intricate relationship history be the background, especially because the narrator denies this will therefore displace it.

Kafka's problematic relationship with women is numerous documented in his biographical writings. The role of women in Kafka's life and work has already been treated early in the Kafka research. Here are, inter alia, the name Heinz Politzer, Walter Sokel, Gilles Deleuze or Reiner Stach mentioned. The female character is Kafka both in his own life as well as in the present text disorder and rescue at the same time. Compared with the public, so the world in the text a kind of alliance between the small woman and the associated in the fight narrator has emerged.

The little woman is remarkable for the narrator in its flitting, doll-like way. Their appearance and their equipment appear to make reference to the strange creature or thing Odradek from history The concern of the householder.

Quote

• " Also is yes, if you will, a certain amount of responsibility on me, because so foreign to me the little woman is, and so much the only relationship that exists between us, the trouble is when I make it, or rather the anger they can be prepared by me, it should not be indifferent to me, as they visibly and physically suffering from this trouble. "

Reception

• V. Jagow, V. Liska (p. 69): " Without a true encounter between the man and the little woman would take place here happens, all the Revoke spite of a gradual, taking place in the process of writing takeover of the attributes of the disturbing figure on the speaker, not the least of those qualities as restlessness and irrational obsession that are explicitly associated in the text with femininity. "

Expenditure

• Franz Kafka: A Hunger Artist. Four stories. Publisher The Forge, Berlin, 1924. ( First edition )
• Franz Kafka: All narratives. Edited by Paul Raabe. Fischer -Taschenbuch -Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1970, ISBN 3- 596-21078 -X.
• Franz Kafka: The narratives. Original version, 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
• Bettina von Jagow, Oliver Year in: Kafka -Handbuch life -works effect. Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-20852-6 ( contribution Vivian Liska )