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BIOGRAPHY
Decisive
days DANIEL
MEDIN Reiner
Stach KAFKA Die
Jahre der Erkenntnis 726pp.
Frankfurt am Kafka's
texts have provoked a
myriad of responses over the past century, yet it is safe to wager that
the
most frequent one has been utter bewilderment. One year after the
publication
of The Metamorphosis, for example, Kafka received this item from a
reader, a Dr
Wolff: Sir, -
You have made me
unhappy. I purchased your Metamorphosis and gifted it to my cousin, but
she
could not make sense of the story. My cousin gave it to her mother: she
could
not explain it. Her mother gave it to another cousin, but she could not
explain
it either. And now they have written to me, the supposed doctor in the
family.
But I am at a loss. Sir! I spent months fighting the Russians in the
trenches
without batting an eyelash. I won't stand idle while my reputation
among my
cousins goes to the devil. Only you can come to my aid. You must, since
you
cooked up this stew in the first place. So tell me please what my
cousin ought
to think of the Metamorphosis. Consternation
of this sort
has persisted, as anyone who has taught Kafka can affirm. But today's
Dr Wolff
has recourse to scores of books purporting to explain the author. Reiner
Stach's biography is
surely the most noteworthy such endeavour of recent years. The second
instalment of a projected triptych, Die Jahre der Erkenntnis (roughly,
"The Years of Enlightenment") follows Die Jahre der Entscheidungen,
which was deftly translated by Shelley Frisch as The Decisive Years in
2002.
That volume (reviewed in the TLS, October 11, 2002) chronicled the
critical
period between 1910 and 1915 when Kafka was hired by the Worker's
Accident
Insurance Institute; started his fateful courtship of Felice Bauer; and
composed several enduring works of fiction, among them The
Metamorphosis.
Published last year to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Kafka's
birth, Die
Jahre der Erkenntnis takes up the thread in wartime At over
1,400 pages, these
two volumes already constitute the most ambitious Kafka biography yet
written.
A third one devoted to his childhood and youth is under contract (and,
presumably, in progress). Such comprehensiveness promises to synthesize
the
many findings that have expanded our picture of Kafka since the first
critical
edition of his writings was published nearly three decades ago. Die
Jahre der
Erkenntnis draws discriminatingly from that enormous body of
scholarship. Here,
as in Entscheidungen, Stach privileges historical approaches (social,
political, medical, and so on) over theoretical ones, using them to
move
fluidly between Kafka's writings, private life and investment, which
followed
an example set by relatives and peers, vanished along with the Habsburg
Empire
when the war ended. The money he lost might have financed his
relocation to Kafka's
health serves as
another case in point. Tuberculosis put an end to his second engagement
to
Felice Bauer. He seemed about to recover before again falling ill with
Spanish
flu in October 1918. Though he survived by the slimmest of margins, the
damage
caused by pneumonia was permanent. Stach recounts this heartbreaking
episode in
more detail than have previous authors, charting a broad historical
overview
while following Kafka's fever chart, thus sensitizing the reader to the
confluence of calamities: Kafka's illness, and the collapse of the
Habsburg
Empire. The juxtaposition is justified. For one thing, the Kafka
family,
German-speaking Jews apprehensive about the coming change of
government,
watched both crises unfold from their apartment overlooking the private and public misfortunes were more than
just
synchronous convergences: they were similar in kind and struck at the
same
wound. Both were catastrophes that cut precious human relationships
asunder,
leaving him again to his· own devices at a hopeful moment. Kafka
had already begun a
radical course of self-analysis a year earlier during a long and happy
convalescence in the countryside. Embracing his isolation, he
discovered that
by casting an unblinking eye on his own frailty, he could channel
something
greater: I have brought nothing with me of what life
requires,
so far as I know, but only the universal human weakness. With this - in
this
respect it is gigantic strength - I have vigorously absorbed the
negative
element of the age in which I live, an age that is, of course, very
close to
me, which I have no right ever to fight against, but as it were a right
to
represent. This
realization (alluded to
in the Erkenntnis of Stach's title)
became a source of momentary confidence. More importantly, it began to
colour
his prose, which took on an increasingly analytical cast. Stach
proves a diligent guide
to these developments. His readings of manuscripts are always attentive
and
frequently astute. This was an attractive feature of the previous
volume,
particularly for those without the language (or patience) to trawl
Stroemfeld/ Roter
Stem's facsimile edition in its entirety. Again we see Kafka
methodically
covering his tracks in drafts, eliminating or modifying r words that
strike him
as too explicit. Our attention is directed to inadvertent and revealing
slips
of the pen. And Stach gives us a valuable tour of the notebooks, from
whence
fictional creations sprang or were stillborn. In most cases, his
commentary
sheds light on the process. Die Jahre der Erkentnis continues its forerunner's effort to flesh
out the
lives of both major and minor surrounding figures. The author quotes
letters
exchanged between different members of the Kafka family and friends,
which
grant us precious glimpses of Kafka as an elder brother or colleague.
Stach's
comprehensive research on Felice Bauer, a lasting contribution of this
biographical project, shows to impressive effect in the initial
chapters. Pages
dedicated to the remarkable Milena Jesenska offer a spirited account of
her
turbulent adolescence and marriage to Ernst Pollak. They illuminate her
relationship to Kafka and the pressures brought to bear on their
correspondence. They also inform his transmutation of it in The
Castle. Only
the section on his
second fiancée, Julie Wohryzek, is disappointing, perhaps because the
lack of
documentation renders suspect the biographer's occasional moralizing
interpolations ("What was this man thinking?"). While Stach's
enthusiastic participation in the narrative can come across as
pedantic, he
indulges this tendency less frequently as the work progresses. One
hopes to see
this trend continue into the final volume, which, on the strength of
its two
precursors, will be well worth waiting for. TLS
APRIL 24 2009 |
