| Constructing China: Kafka's Orientalist Discourse Contributor(s): Goebel, Rolf J. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1571131442 ISBN-13: 9781571131447 Publisher: Camden House (NY) OUR PRICE: $76.00 Product Type: Hardcover Published: November 1997 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | European - German |
| Dewey: 833.912 |
| LCCN: 97015825 |
| Series: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 6" W x 9" (0.85 lbs) 144 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Germany |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Goebel studies four representative works by Kafka that explore the problems of the Western representation of the Orient: his 'Description of a Struggle'; several letters to Felice Bauer, offering an interpretation of Chinese poetry in connection with the conflict between writing and Kafka's love for Felice; the canonical story 'The Great Wall of China', parodically appropriating sterotypes of China's stagnant history and authoritarian emperors for a refutation of colonialist ideas of progress; and the sequel 'An Old Manuscript', dramatising China's invasion by foreign powers and the breakdown of crosscultural communication. Elucidating these themes from a broadly comparative perspective, Goebel shows Kafka to be one of German modernism's most intriguing and self-reflective writers on the Orient.ROLF J. GOEBEL is Associate Professor of German at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. |
Contributor Bio(s): Goebel, Rolf J.: - Professor of German at University of Alabama, Huntsville |