Narrative Transformed: The Fragments around Franz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy”
Franz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy”, in which the ape-turned-human Rotpeter provides a narrative account of his life, has been scrutinized with regard to its allegorical, scientific, and historical implications. This article shifts the focus toward the narrative set-up by closely reading the tran...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
MDPI AG
2017-04-01
|
Series: | Humanities |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/6/2/19 |
id |
doaj-6b0ee6b1a5234a7087baa30b046d36b4 |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-6b0ee6b1a5234a7087baa30b046d36b42020-11-24T21:03:59ZengMDPI AGHumanities2076-07872017-04-01621910.3390/h6020019h6020019Narrative Transformed: The Fragments around Franz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy”Doreen Densky0Department of German, New York University, 19 University Place, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10003, USAFranz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy”, in which the ape-turned-human Rotpeter provides a narrative account of his life, has been scrutinized with regard to its allegorical, scientific, and historical implications. This article shifts the focus toward the narrative set-up by closely reading the transformation that can be traced in the sequence of several narrative attempts found in Kafka’s manuscripts. Analyzing the fragments around this topic, I show how Kafka probes different angles—from a meeting between a first-person narrator and Rotpeter’s impresario and a dialogue between the narrator and Rotpeter, via the well-known “Report” itself, on to a letter by one of Rotpeter’s former teachers—that reveal a narrative transformation equally important as the metamorphosis from animal to human. The focus on the narrative constellations and on the lesser-known constitutive margins of the “Report” help to better understand, moreover, the complex relationship between immediacy and mediation, the ethnological concern of speech for the self and the unknown animal other, and poetological questions of production, representation, and reception.http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/6/2/19animal narratorshuman-animal studiesFranz Kafkamanuscriptsspeaking-fornarrative representationliterary representation |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Doreen Densky |
spellingShingle |
Doreen Densky Narrative Transformed: The Fragments around Franz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy” Humanities animal narrators human-animal studies Franz Kafka manuscripts speaking-for narrative representation literary representation |
author_facet |
Doreen Densky |
author_sort |
Doreen Densky |
title |
Narrative Transformed: The Fragments around Franz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy” |
title_short |
Narrative Transformed: The Fragments around Franz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy” |
title_full |
Narrative Transformed: The Fragments around Franz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy” |
title_fullStr |
Narrative Transformed: The Fragments around Franz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy” |
title_full_unstemmed |
Narrative Transformed: The Fragments around Franz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy” |
title_sort |
narrative transformed: the fragments around franz kafka’s “a report to an academy” |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Humanities |
issn |
2076-0787 |
publishDate |
2017-04-01 |
description |
Franz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy”, in which the ape-turned-human Rotpeter provides a narrative account of his life, has been scrutinized with regard to its allegorical, scientific, and historical implications. This article shifts the focus toward the narrative set-up by closely reading the transformation that can be traced in the sequence of several narrative attempts found in Kafka’s manuscripts. Analyzing the fragments around this topic, I show how Kafka probes different angles—from a meeting between a first-person narrator and Rotpeter’s impresario and a dialogue between the narrator and Rotpeter, via the well-known “Report” itself, on to a letter by one of Rotpeter’s former teachers—that reveal a narrative transformation equally important as the metamorphosis from animal to human. The focus on the narrative constellations and on the lesser-known constitutive margins of the “Report” help to better understand, moreover, the complex relationship between immediacy and mediation, the ethnological concern of speech for the self and the unknown animal other, and poetological questions of production, representation, and reception. |
topic |
animal narrators human-animal studies Franz Kafka manuscripts speaking-for narrative representation literary representation |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/6/2/19 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT doreendensky narrativetransformedthefragmentsaroundfranzkafkasareporttoanacademy |
_version_ |
1716772461688651776 |