Kafka's Castle: Rethinking Social Fiction

Undergraduate / Graduate

We perform a close reading of Franz Kafka's novel unfinished Das Schloss (published posthumously in 1926, and known as The Castle in English). Besides considering some of the broad range of possible intrerpretations, from the theological to the satirical, we attend closely not only to Kafka's language and imagery, but to two basics of the realist novel that are curiously absent in much Kafka criticism: characterization and plot. Optional readings from other works by Kafka, and from his contemporaries will help us appreciate the significance of Kafka's last and greatest work.