The Metropolis and the Attic: Spatial Representations of Jewish Identity in Kafka and the Golem of Prague

Abstract

The paper queries the significance of two figures in representations of Prague, the legendary Golem and the writer Franz Kafka. It analyzes the spatial representation of Jewish identity in iterations of the Golem legend, such as AloisJirasek’s retelling of the Golem legend in Old Czech Legends ( Starepověsticeske , 1894) and Yudl Rosenberg’s treatment of the legend in The Golem and the Wondrous Deeds of the Maharal of Prague ( Niflaot Maharal , 1909); and juxtaposes them with the handling of space in Kafka’s “Report to an Academy” (“EinBerichtfureine Akademie ,” 1917) and The Metamorphosis ( Die Verwandlung , 1915). Surveying their shifts between modes of metropolitan mobility and sequestration, I suggest that these narratives of straddled identity play around the edges of identity, resonating, in particular, at the times when both Czechs and Jews found themselves caught between the responsibilities of tradition and the pressures of assimilation.