Kafka's Stereoscopes: The Political Function of a Literary Style (New Directions in German Studies; Volume 28) by Isak Winkel Holm - 2020

Bloomsbury, 2020. Hardbound. New Book. Hardbound. In 1911, Franz Kafka encountered a Kaiserpanorama, a stereoscopic spectacle offering an illusion of three-dimensional depth through the juxtaposition of two images of the same object seen from different perspectives. This book describes his stereoscopic literary style, which emulates the effect of the optical stereoscope, showing how the stereoscope plays a key role in the relationship between literature and the political in his works, as his literary stereoscopes juxtapose two political experiences. It outlines the content, form, and function of his literary stereoscopes as the configuration of a community and the juxtaposition of dissimilar images in that community to bring about its reconfiguration. It examines this concept in “Fellowship," a diary entry from 1912, "The Judgment," and "Researches of a Dog," as well as important events in Kafka's life that impacted his stereoscopic style, particularly his visit to Prague of the Yiddish theater troupe led by his friend Yitzhak Löwy in 1911 and his work for the health care of disabled veterans returning from World War I. The last part of the book explores his three novels as stereoscopic apparatuses, looking at Amerika , The Trial, and The Castle, ending with an analysis of "On the Question of the Laws." (2020 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR)