Negative origin in Franz Kafka's literature: The Castle and other narratives

Author(s)

Tomaz Amorim Fernandes Izabel

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
• Defense date: 2013-01-03

Examining board members

Jeanne Marie Gagnebin; Susana Kampff Lages; Fábio Akcelrud Durão

• Advisor: Jeanne Marie Gagnebin

Abstract

This work aims to comprehend the specificity of temporality in Czech writer Franz Kafka's narratives. In order to accomplish this, we will try to develop the concept of negative origin and apply it to the novel The castle (Das Schloß). By negative origin one understands the constant movement of negation operated, by the text itself through its labyrinthic construction and by the protagonists and other characters, on the presumptions of every original, which in Kafka is either absent or damaged. Throughout this work, short narratives from Kafka will be compared with classical narratives with similar themes, including texts from the Bible and the Odyssey. Different critical approaches, like that of Walter Benjamin and Max Brod, will be appropriated and criticized in search for the formulation of the concept (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/06972-1 - A negative origin in Franz Kafka's The castle
• Grantee: Tomaz Amorim Fernandes Izabel
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master