First sorrow

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First Sorrow is one of four stories by Franz Kafka from the anthology Ein Hungerkünstler , published in 1924 , which was the last book before his death. It is an ironic story “about the ecstasy and horrors of being an artist”.

Summary

The story tells of a trapeze artist in the vaudeville theater , who increasingly only lives high up in the trapezoidal dome, does his exercises and does not want to climb down any more. The change of location of the variety show is problematic, as it then has to leave the trapeze and travel. On such a journey he confronts his impresario, who is very concerned about him, insistently that from now on he will always need two harnesses at the same time. The impresario immediately admits this, but he also suspects the trapeze artist's probably increasingly unsettling thoughts and recognizes the first signs of age in the form of wrinkles on the otherwise childish forehead.

Text analysis

first section

In contrast to the two other artist stories from the Hungerkünstler Band, only the trapeze artist and his direct vaudeville environment are presented here, but not the audience. This creates the impression of art as an inward-looking end in itself only for the edification of the artist. The trapeze artist only has contact with people who climb up to him in the dome or with his impresario . One of the most beautiful moments in the impresario's life is when the trapeze artist can return to the trapezoidal dome after a trip. It reads touchingly, but what aberration of life priorities speaks from it.

second part

The impresario immediately advocates the desire for a second trapeze, which the trapeze artist performs with great emotion. The consonance between the two on this question and the alienation of having only managed to get by with one trapeze so far is evident in the fact that the trapeze artist's tears also wet the face of the impresario. But at the same time the impresario frees himself from his dependence on the artist because he sees an existential threat from his aging in front of his eyes. Up to now the trapeze artist was an "extraordinary and irreplaceable artist" in his youthful agility for the variety theater. Now the end of this era is looming.

outlook

Similar to the story of the hunger artist, the last sentence opens a view that contains its own story. It can be assumed that the aging artist will no longer be granted the previous extravagances due to his dwindling attractiveness. The impresario, who treated him like a sensitive, adored son, will turn to new, more successful artists in his variety show. In addition, it is to be feared that the artist will no longer cope with the total trapeze artist existence in the dome in old age and will inevitably decline more and more in his art.

Interpretation of the title

Whose First Sorrow is depicted here? The artist has often suffered when he had to leave the trapeze. Does he suddenly feel old age himself and therefore want a second trapezoid as an antidote, so to speak? Or is it the impresario's first suffering when dealing with the artist, to whom he is very close, but who becomes worthless to him with increasing age?

Interpretative approaches

The short story was written in the spring of 1922 and first appeared in the autumn of 1922 in the magazine Genius. Kafka did not value the story highly and described it as a "disgusting little story". Nevertheless, he integrated it in 1924 in his last collection of stories, Ein Hungerkünstler . As far as you can rate this as a reader, you have to agree with Kafka. The story lacks the urgency and complexity of the other two artist stories in the volume. It may lack depth; as if someone else was trying to write in the style of Kafka and almost achieved it. On the other hand, it impresses with its clear, barren structure.

The story is also a statement about Kafka's rhythm of life. Lingering in the trapezoidal dome corresponds to the phases of writing, the inevitable descent corresponds to the demands that the hated everyday life makes on him. In the extremely caring impresario, the friend Max Brod should be recognized. The friend is defined in the narrative as a business relationship. He sees the signs of decay (Kafka's illness) and has doubts about further artistic work.

The story can also be read as a kind of perverted artist's story: The trapeze artist, who only lives in heights, wants to get back to the bottom of reality, but does not manage to jump off. Seen in this way, his wish for a second trapezoid seems to have been pushed forward, the text also states that “the impresario's approval” is “just as meaningless (...) as his contradiction would be, for example”. The despair remains. When the trapeze artist finally cries in the arms of his boss and says: “Just this one pole - how can I live!” He says, as Volker Drüke writes, “maybe not the singularity of the pole, but the pole itself , as a metaphor for its overly one-sided existence. It seems that he has become unhappy in his lonely existence as an artist, that he is now suffering from eternal loneliness. The (...) not seriously meant demand for a second trapezoid already indicates socialization - the expressed wish contains subtextually the actual longing of the speaker. "

In the course of his life, Kafka became increasingly concerned with Judaism. Due to his readings in this direction at the time, the trapeze artist can be seen as a symbol for the assimilated Western Jew who has got rid of his religious identity in contrast to the Eastern Jew with his down-to-earth attitude.

expenditure

  • A starving artist. Four stories. Verlag Die Schmiede, Berlin 1924. (First edition)
  • All the stories. Published by Paul Raabe . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1970, ISBN 3-596-21078-X .
  • The stories. Original version, edited by Roger Herms. Fischer Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-596-13270-3 .
  • Prints in lifetime. Edited by Wolf Kittler, Hans-Gerd Koch and Gerhard Neumann . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1996, pp. 317-321.

Secondary literature

  • Peter-André Alt : Franz Kafka: The Eternal Son. A biography. CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-53441-4 .
  • Bernd Auerochs: A hunger artist. Four stories. In: Manfred Engel , Bernd Auerochs (Hrsg.): Kafka manual. Life - work - effect. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02167-0 , pp. 318–329.
  • Volker Drüke: Kafka's transformation. The Judgment, The Stoker, The Metamorphosis and other stories in a new light. Athena-Verlag, Oberhausen 2016, ISBN 978-3-89896-625-2 .
  • Manfred Engel: On Kafka's art and literary theory. In: Manfred Engel, Bernd Auerochs (Hrsg.): Kafka manual. Life - work - effect. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02167-0 , pp. 483-498, esp. 486 f.
  • Joachim Unseld : Franz Kafka A writer's life . Carl Hanser Verlag, 1982, ISBN 3-446-13568-5 .

Web links

Wikisource: First Suffering (From: Ein Hungerkünstler, 1924)  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alt, p. 645.
  2. ↑ Unseld, p. 199.
  3. ↑ a b Alt, p. 647.
  4. ↑ a b Alt, p. 646.
  5. ↑ Drüke 2016, p. 93.