Kafka's the Castle and the Critical Imagination (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781571130044)

Survey of the criticism devoted to Kafka's The Castle, his final novel.

Kafka's final, unfinished novel, The Castle, remains one of the most celebrated yet most impenetrable masterpieces of modernist fiction, and a focus of literary criticsm and theory. In this chronological survey of the critical attention it has attracted, both academic and non-academic, Professor Dowden emphasises the acts of critical imagination which have shaped our image and understanding of Kafka and the novel. He explores the historical and cultural milieus of criticism, from the Weimar Era of Max Brod and Walter Benjamin to Lionel Trilling's Cold War to postmodern multiculturalism and 'cultural studies', showing how and why The Castle has aroused strong opinionsin each generation of criticism; he also accounts for those moments in which the novel escapes from an historically anchored understanding into the realm of the universal.

Author: Stephen D. Dowden
ISBN-10: 1571130047
ISBN-13: 9781571130044
Publisher: Camden House (NY)
Language: English
Published: 05/25/1995
Pages: 176
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.92lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.56d