The Zürau Aphorisms

The Ziirau aphorisms are 109 Aphorisms of Franz Kafka, which originated from September 1917 until April 1918. Max Brod put them under the title "Reflections on Sin, hope, suffering, and the true way ."

Formation

After the outbreak of his tuberculosis in August 1917 Kafka has moved a few months to rest in the small Bohemian village Ziirau where his sister Ottilie " Ottla " Kafka worked for agricultural purposes. He has been particularly felt comfortable there and use it as "perhaps the best time of his life " means, probably because all the responsibility to professional, parent, or women were dropped later.

Kafka had decided not to work there literary. However, he completed diary and Oktavhefte. From the notes of these books Kafka has 109 numbered pieces of text removed. These aphorisms were 1931 Kiepenheuer under the above by Max Brod selected title for the first time published.

Content

The aphorisms provide strict reflections of metaphysical topics represents the themes are, inter alia, good and evil, truth and falsehood, alienation and redemption, death and paradise. They are the only texts of Kafka, who deal directly with theological issues. The philosophical points made are inspired by the world of ideas of Schopenhauer, in particular of The World as Will and Representation, as well as Kierkegaard's Fall interpretations.

The individual aphorisms no kinship among themselves, some have a narrative character, others offer individual images or represent parabolas

Citations selection

  • 26 - "It is a goal, but no way; what we call way is hesitation. "
  • 34 - "His languor is the Gladiator after the fight, his work was the whitewashes of an angle in an official exchange. "
  • 88 - "Death is before us, such as in the classroom on the wall a picture of Alexander's battle. It is important to obscure by our actions in this life or even wipe out the image. "

Reception

  • Old (p. 467 ): " Again, the negative dimension of Kafka's life term is visible, which is supported by the view that the individual himself must inevitably caught up in self-deception, lies and deceit, if it would aim for an improvement in his earthly situation. "
  • Stach (p. 252): "Much remains fragmentary: always sporadic, ineffective current rates between aphoristic flash of, pictorial- penetrating formulations interrupted again by diffuse and abruptly terminating search movements that separates Kafka rigid by dashes from one another. "

Expenditure

  • Franz Kafka. The Ziirau aphorisms. Eds by Roberto Calasso, Suhrkamp Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-518-22408-3.
  • Franz Kafka. Posthumous writings and fragments II Edited by Jost Schillemeit, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2002, pp. 113-140.

Secondary literature

  • Manfred Engel: Ziirau aphorisms. In: Manfred Engel, Bernd aurochs (ed.): Kafka manual. Life - Work - effect. Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart, Weimar 2010, pp. 281-292, ISBN 978-3-476-02167-0.
  • Roberto Calasso: " The penalty imposed glory." I.R. the band Franz Kafka The Ziirau aphorisms.
  • Peter- André Alt: Franz Kafka: The eternal Son. A Biography. Publisher C. H. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-53441-4.
  • Reiner Stach: Kafka: The years of knowledge. S. Fischer, ISBN 978-3-10-075119-5.
  • Harald Münster: The book as ax. Read Franz Kafka difference theoretically. Peter Lang, Frankfurt aM 2011, pp. 59-73, ISBN 978-3631611333.
Søren Kierkegaard Parable The Battle of Alexander at Issus The Aeroplanes At Brescia Richard and Samuel Contemplation (Kafka) The Judgment The Stoker The Metamorphosis A Fratricide In the Penal Colony A Country Doctor (short story) Description of a Struggle The Village Schoolmaster A Crossbreed The Knock at the Manor Gate The Great Wall of China (collection) My Neighbor Prometheus (Kafka) Letter to His Father The Problem of Our Laws The City Coat of Arms A Little Fable The Silence of the Sirens Poseidon (Kafka) Investigations of a Dog The Married Couple Give It Up! (short story) The Departure (short story) The Burrow (short story)
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