Resolutions

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Decisions is a small prose piece by Franz Kafka that was published as part of the anthology Consideration in 1913. It comes from the diary entries of February 5, 1912 and has so far been little interpreted.

Content and analysis

In this little reflection , a narrator, who vacillates between the first person and the man perspective, presents two contradicting sensibilities. First of all, there is the idea of ​​“rising out of a miserable state” in order to turn to the world with energy that also takes hold of him physically. But the next paragraph negates everything, "because mistakes cannot be avoided" and it has to go back in circles.

Its consequence is: "accept everything as a heavy mass behave", "look at the other with animal eyes". This call to apathy is further intensified by the exhortation to "increase the last grave-like rest". This is about adapting to society and the question of how much one has to deny one's own artistic individuality according to the sentence: "... what is left of life as a ghost, put down with your own hand".

The last movement of the prose piece introduces the characteristic gesture of such a state, namely “moving the little finger over the eyebrows”. The description of a psychological state through physical representation is often to be found in Kafka and has its direct equivalent in the final sentence from The Unhappiness of the Bachelor . See there: "... a real head, including a forehead to hit with your hand".

In its content-related division into positive and negative mood, one might also be reminded of the little prose piece Auf der Galerie from the volume Ein Landarzt from 1920, where the question of the luck or misfortune of an art rider arises. The further development of Kafka can now be seen here. The “Resolutions” are quite forceful in their choice of words, but do not achieve the dazzling ambiguity of the later little work and do not strive for it.

reception

v. Jagow (p. 405): In the volume contemplation, the reflection of the self on its perception in society begins with decisions - and also Kafka's reflection on his self- examination as an author, because the texts are pervaded by biographical traces; they can be read as carbon copies of the diary notes and the struggle for language, self, desire and writing.

expenditure

  • Franz Kafka: All the stories. Published by Paul Raabe . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt / Main, 1970. ISBN 3-596-21078-X .
  • Franz Kafka The Stories Original version Fischer Verlag 1997 Roger Herms ISBN 3-596-13270-3
  • Franz Kafka: Prints during his lifetime. Edited by Wolf Kittler, Hans-Gerd Koch and Gerhard Neumann . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt / Main, 2002, p. 19

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Raabe p. 394
  2. ↑ v. Jagow p. 405.
  3. ↑ v. Jagow p. 405.

Web links

Wikisource: Resolutions  - Sources and Full Texts