The passers-by

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Die Vorüberlaufenden is a small prose piece by Franz Kafka that was published as part of the anthology contemplation 1913. Little has been interpreted so far.

The text was written in 1907 and was published in advance in the magazines Hyperion and Bohemia . It is a memory of Baudelaire's A une passante from the poetry cycle Les Fleurs du Mal from 1857.

content

A fictional nocturnal street scene is presented. The protagonist happens to observe a man walking through an alleyway lit by the full moon and being followed by a second man who is screaming. The narrator tries to trivialize this threatening process so that he does not have to help himself in any way: “Maybe these two organized the hate speech for their entertainment, maybe both are following a third, […] maybe the two know nothing from each other and everyone just runs on their own responsibility [...] ”.

For a moment he also thinks that the second person could have intended murder, but if you intervene you would be complicit. Ultimately, the men walk past and the protagonist is happy that the spook is over and that the second man can no longer be seen.

shape

We have the we-narrative perspective, but strictly speaking, the narrator does not act, but thinks of possible explanations for the men's race. The we perspective is also irritating, as it is not clear which we community should look at this nocturnal scene. At least no interaction between several observing people can be seen in the course of the piece. It can be assumed that it is a question of a single observer - presumably that despondent observer who populates the volume contemplation so many times. If you follow the street spectacle, it is understandable that the protagonist does not rush into the scene as a hero.

Even in this small piece of prose that occurs for viewing characteristic voyeuristic moment forth. However, it is not a question of a targeted observation, i.e. an observation determined by the narrator himself, but of processes that impose themselves on the narrator against his will and want to be suppressed by him.

expenditure

  • Franz Kafka: The passers-by. In: Paul Raabe (Ed.): Franz Kafka. All the stories. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-596-21078-X .
  • Franz Kafka: Prints during his lifetime . Edited by Wolf Kittler, Hans-Gerd Koch and Gerhard Neumann. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 26.

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Kafka: The passers-by. In: Paul Raabe (Ed.): Franz Kafka. All the stories. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-596-21078-X , p. 394.
  2. ↑ a b Peter-André Alt, p. 251.

Web links

Wikisource: The Passers-by  - Sources and Full Texts