0602022 - ÚČL 2025 RIV CZ eng J - Journal Article
Müller, Richard
The Issue of Repetitiveness in Kafka.
Svět literatury. Roč. 34, č. 69 (2024), s. 32-46. ISSN 0862-8440. E-ISSN 2336-6729
Research Infrastructure: CLB III - 90243
Institutional support: RVO:68378068
Keywords : repetition * Franz Kafka * writing * disorientation * technical reproduction
OECD category: Specific literatures
Method of publishing: Open access
Result website:
https://svetliteratury.ff.cuni.cz/en/2024-1-3/DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/23366729.2024.1.3

The paper inquires into the phenomenon of repetition in the works of Franz Kafka and in what ways it might characterize his way of writing (and his understanding of writing). I begin by making a distinction between three different planes of repetition, or repetitiveness: (1) as a ‘method’ of production, (2) as a symptom of the characters’ situations, and (3) as a representation technique. First, there are different versions of the same text, equivalent in terms of finality, but perhaps also a certain existential rhythm (as exemplified by Kafka’s famous ‘schedules’). I suggest that a comparative reading of Heinrich von Kleist’s Michael Kohlhaas (1810) could provide an insight into this feature of ‘productivity’. Second, repetitive characters’ situations create certain patterns and beg the question of their complex reader effects. Finally, and in addition to ‘classical’ discursive repetitions, there are minor textual recurrences (as in his ‘breakthrough’ story, “The Judgment”) and the question whether these can be related to an analogy in technical reproduction. Are they part of an experimental narrative method? Is there a ‘sense’ to repetition in Kafka and can these provisional distinctions help us understand it? How should their entanglement be described?
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0359244