Multilingual, Like Franz Kafka*

Abstract

This paper explores the social and cultural dimensions of individual multilingualism by focusing on a semi-autobiographical essay written in 1917 by an author who is usually read as a monolingual German writer but who was, in fact, multilingual and multicultural: Franz Kafka. The story is about an ape who, in order to survive his capture by the Hagenbeck circus, decides to become human and learn the human language. This story has been read as a parable for assimilated Jews and successful immigrants. By giving Kafka a multilingual, rather than a psychoanalytic or metaphysical reading, we can explore what literary studies can contribute to research on multilingualism and, vice versa, how multilingualism research can enrich the study of literature.