During his lifetime, Franz Kafka sold about a book a week. He died in 1924. Half a century later, an average of two books per week were published about him. How did this Kafka industry come about? What makes this writer’s work so special?
According to the guests of this episode, Arnon Grunberg and Michel Krielaars, we should at least drastically reduce the use of the word ‘Kafkaesque’. Kafka’s world is more than a dark nightmare, in which citizens are crushed by bureaucracies. Without Kafka, you miss even essential parts of the culture, says Grunberg. Moreover, Kafka’s books are full of humor and dark eroticism: they are worlds in which innocence does not exist, the judges read porn magazines and women jump on you just like that.
In ‘The Trial’, Josef K.’s life is suddenly disrupted when two men arrest him in his apartment. Without understanding what he is being arrested for, Josef becomes trapped in an inscrutable legal system. What does this book teach us about guilt, passivity and the workings of our own society?
This is the seventh installment in a nine-part series on books that changed the world.
- Presentation:
- Eve Peek
- Guests:
- Michel Krielaars & Arnon Grunberg
- Editing & Editing:
- Jeanne Gerken
- Photo:
- Culture Images / ANP