Kafka's Writing

Writing--vocation or duty, gift or curse, poison or antidote? This course provides an introduction to Kafka's stories, novels, journal entries, and letters, with a focus on his complicated, tortured relationship to the idea and practice of writing. We will explore how the difficulties of this relationship generate an enigmatic, tragi-comic oscillation between hope and despair that continues to fascinate readers today. This is a writing-intensive course, and the frequent short assignments will involve drafts, revisions, and individual consultations, with the aim of getting you to think critically about your own relationship to writing about literature. In English. Enrollment limited to 40. First year students require instructor permission.