Ein Hungerkünstler: Vier Geschichten by Franz Kafka

Abstract

MLR, I02.4, 2007 II85 precisely, Vienna; and, likewise, their subsequent exile (in London and Zurich, re spectively).While Zeder has explored theAustrian connections inhis previous, well documented study Thomas Mann inOsterreich (Siegen: Boschen, 200I), his pub lication of these letters also constitutes a contribution to exile studies. Substantial issues do arise, such asMann's use ofOskar Goldberg as the basis for the figureof Chaim Breisacher inDoktor Faustus (pp. 67, ioo), or his scepticism regardingAlfred Baeumler (pp. I20-2I), but arguably the real interest lies elsewhere. In his lectures on thehistory of philosophy, Hegel dismissed theCynic philosophy ofDiogenes as 'nurAnekdoten', although he remained, as Lenin noted, more circumspect in the Wissenschaft der Logik about the significance of anecdotes forunderstanding history. The apparently minor, insignificant details in these letters (illuminated inZeder's ever-helpful commentary) serve, in fact, to revealmuch about Mann as awriter (and master of thedevastating phrase), but also as a social actor: they illustrate, as contem porary jargon would have it,his skills in 'impression management'. Above all,what clearly emerges from thisvolume is Mann's ability to lifthimself above his immediate circumstances, even as he accepted their limitations.Which sometimes meant: lunch with Trebitsch, or replying to a long letter fromLesser. Yet, inour current climate, theremay be some who wish to ask: is every last scrap ofwhat Thomas Mann wrote reallyworthy of publication, or analysis, or even our attention?When such documents as these, however, offer insight into the social and communicative strategies of a significantwriter, disclose the extent of his ability to exercise a powerful and charismatic influence on thepersonal level, and thereby shed lighton the cultural history of an entire epoch, the answer must surely be 'yes'.Not least, Mann's capacity to retain, likeLeverkiihn, a sense of the comic ('das Verlangen nach Komik', p. 66) remains a valuable lesson. UNIVERSITY OFGLASGOW PAULBISHOP En Hungerkiinstler: Vier Geschichten. By FRANZ KAFKA. Ed. by EWALD ROSCH. (Goldmann Klassiker mit Erlauterungen) Munich: Goldmann. 2005. 255 pp. E6.95. ISBN 978-3-442-0770I-4. Replicating the format established in his earlier edition ofDie Verwandlung, which appeared in the same series in I999, in thisvolume the editor,Ewald R6sch, furnishes the reader with a useful study edition of the four brief narratives contained in the collection Ein Hungerkiinstler. The four texts, 'Erstes Leid', 'Eine kleine Frau', 'Ein Hungerkiinstler', and 'Josephine, die Singerin oder Das Volk derMause', themselves occupy only a fractionof thevolume, the restofwhich isgiven over toR6sch's exten sive consideration of their significance inKafka's ceuvre.The reader ispresented with a thoughtfuldiscussion ofKafka's 'Botschaft',which isfollowed by an examination of thegenesis of the texts as a group. The editor thenprovides an interpretation of each text in the context of art as the subject of art.The volume also includes a chronology ofKafka's lifeand work and a detailed commentary on each text. Although brief, the texts epitomize the complexity and economy ofKafka's writ ing. For example, the firstpiece, 'Erstes Leid', describes in littlemore than three pages the travelling lifeof a trapeze artist and his impresario, the formerunable to communicate with theworld beyond his art, the latter long-suffering in his efforts to cocoon his artiste. The outcome borders, in typicalKafkaesque fashion, on the surreal. Yet, despite itsbrevity,Kafka's narrative is rich and vivid, and succeeds in conveying the complexity of the relationship between the twomen while also sug gesting the darker side of an obsession born of art. The result is a depiction which centres on the insecurities of the individual and the impossibility of perfection. ii86 Reviews As isoften the case with such pieces, the role of the reader in interpreting the text iskey.Rosch argues that thiswas central toKafka's ethos as awriter, and emphasizes the care with which Kafka approached his work and the need he felt to have his textsproperly understood, something which seems almost at odds with their inherent ambiguity. It seems ironic in this context thatKafka's work should have suffered more than that ofmost other authors from editorial intervention.While spared the manipulation suffered by, forexample, Der Process, even these four short textswere immediately recategorized by Kafka's publisher, shifting from their original defini tion asNovellen toGeschichten. Published...