One century after the passing of Franz Kafka, two recently published texts serve to reinforce his lasting influence and argue for a renewed interpretation of his works. Mark Harman’s translation of Selected Stories harks back to the prickly nature of the original German text, whilst the anthology, A Cage Went in Search of a Bird, consists of reflections on Kafka’s work by 10 modern authors.
Released to commemorate the hundred-year anniversary of Kafka’s death, the anthology’s stories draw inspiration from Kafka’s lines, ideas or ambience. The authors employ a common technique: they choose an unremarkable element of contemporary life and examine it through a Kafkaesque prism, thus revealing its hidden oddity. For example, Elif Batuman depicts a bizarre flat inspection that transforms into an existential court of sorts, Tommy Orange crafts a metaphor about Coronavirus-related anxiety, and Naomi Alderman examines a society made absurdly unified by artificial intelligence.
Hygiene, a tale by Helen Oyeyemi, takes the form of an unsettling dream about online romance, where your presumed online date becomes a strange, unknown tormentor inquiring whether you’re just another careless individual seeking to leave marks wherever you go. The anthology’s most humorous tale is credited to Charlie Kaufman, who has drawn from Kafkaesque themes extensively in his films. His narrative about an autofiction author ensnared in increasingly tightening cycles of an identity crisis additionally offers meta-commentary on the risks of trying to decipher Kafka’s works.
Some of the most compelling stories are those that tap into the simmering political rage implicit in Kafka’s depiction of capricious power structures. Leone Ross’s story, Headache, presents a chilling situation that highlights the biases in a healthcare system that continually neglects women of colour. This framework appears to be fruitful, given how Kafka’s unique perception of the world aligns well with the complexities of our modern world.
Quoted is Chris Whitaker: “Sometimes, I ponder whether the path I chose was somehow related to the violent incident from my childhood”.
Harman’s edited and translated version of “Selected Stories” consists of some of Kafka’s famous short pieces as well as, rarely seen, fragmented ones, which are organised in historical order. The comprehensive introduction delves into Kafka’s life and the parallels with his work, provided due to his job at an insurance agency, dealing with the grievances of injured employees. This aspect of his life allows us to understand Kafka’s lasting imagery – a world where individuals are always at the mercy of a nonsensical administration. However, Harman also does well in challenging the stern image of Kafka shown in popular media; excerpts from letters and diaries portray him as surprisingly sweet and humorous.
This new translation provides us with a fresh look at Kafka that deviates from our current understanding. In the past, the inconsistencies in his work were often taken care of; Max Brod, Kafka’s friend and after-death editor, dutifully tidied up the notebooks, while past English translations aimed to normalise and enhance the text. Harman, on the contrary, aspires to stay true to the original version as much as possible, matching German syntax and preserving Kafka’s unique traits, including abrupt changes in tense. Annotations make known to the reader the untranslatable ambiguities of certain words and impressive footnotes are dedicated to decoding the verminous creature envisaged as Kafka’s most famous story’s protagonist, “The Metamorphosis.” Harman intriguingly translates this as “The Transformation,” arguing that the initial translation is imprecise and unduly influenced by Ovid’s works.
It may appear that we are splitting hairs over trivial matters. Whether Gregor Samsa woke up as a specific insect species, or even an insect at all, is a query that might have haunted Nabokov but doesn’t likely captivate the majority of balanced readers for more than brief moments. Harman’s analytical framework’s purpose isn’t to divert attention away from the written work, rather it seeks to inject an element of ambiguity. With a writer of Kafka’s prominence, a sense of self-satisfaction tends to blanket how we perceive their creations. Without even reading Kafka, we believe we understand his themes and can classify an incident as Kafkaesque. The unanticipated choices and comprehensive notes by Harman act as a reminder that the translation and interpretation of a text are not set in stone. Selected Stories endeavours to restore some of Kafka’s original oddity.