From the parables

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From the parables is a short parable-like prose work by Franz Kafka , which deals with the essence of the parables and was written in autumn 1922. The editors Max Brod and Hans-Joachim Schoeps published the work for the first time in 1931 in the text collection When the Chinese Wall was built and gave it the title.

The text of the parabola

From the parables

Many complained that the words of the wise were always parables, but of no use in everyday life, and that is all we have. When the wise man says: "Go over", he does not mean that one should cross over to the other side, which one could still achieve if the result of the journey were worthwhile, but he means some fabulous over there, something that we do not know, which cannot be specified by him either and which cannot help us here at all. All these parables really only want to say that the incomprehensible is incomprehensible, and we knew that. But what we struggle with every day are different things.

Then one said: “Why are you resisting? If you were to follow the parables, then you would have become parables yourself and thus free from daily toil. "

Another said, "I bet that's a parable too."

The first said: "You won."

The second said: "But unfortunately only in the parable."

The first said, “No, really; you have lost in the parable. "

Emergence

During the revision, Max Brod adjusted the tense in the first sentence (he changed “complained” to “complained”). On the other hand, Brod and Schoeps gave the prose the title.

content

The short text deals with the essence of the parables . "First a report on a complaint brought by many because of the inapplicability of 'parables' - then a short dialogue about the legitimacy of this complaint."

According to an unspecified group ("many"), parables are not suitable for people's everyday life because they deal with the incomprehensibility of the hereafter, while people only have to struggle with this world. The absurdity of parable speech is concretized using an example: When the wise men in the parable ask to “cross over”, this does not mean a goal in this world, but the hereafter, transcendence (Latin transcedere = to go over). The simile-like request is actually an impossibility. This only states that the transcendent is inaccessible for people - but this is a truism.

In a short dialogue between two interlocutors, this problem is illustrated as well as ad absurdum. A representative of transcendence (“one” or “the first”) stands opposite a representative of immanence (“the other” or “the second”). The two agree that people who are able to follow the parables would themselves become a parable, and that this process of becoming a parable is itself a parable. In a play on words, it is then discussed whether someone who has recognized this has won “in parable” or “in reality”. The answer to the question is that knowledge is only valid for this world, while it is in vain for the penetration of the hereafter.

shape

The text is a typical example of Kafka's “Abbreviatur style”. In the first part, there is an authorial narrative behavior that reflects the opinion of the “many” in the hypotactic speech report. The second part is dominated by the neutral narrative behavior, which depicts the paratactic dialogue between the two interlocutors.

The text in the form handed down by Brod is characterized by a noticeable change of tense: If the first part is in the present tense (“Many complain”), the second part is in the past tense. This tense change can be traced back to the editor Max Brod, who changed the verb form “complained” to “complain”.

It is “a parable about parables”, a meta-parable. From the parables, the text adopts the structure of the somewhat concrete situation on the basis of which a wisdom is presented. This happens in a dialogical manner in the form of a dispute between an initiated and an uninitiated. The final punch line, in which the dialogue culminates, is also typical of the parable. The lesson that can be learned from the parable, however, remains in the dark.

Interpretation aspects

There is disagreement in the literature as to whether the parables in the text can be understood as a “cipher for Kafka's own work” in an autoreferential manner, ie whether they represent a “thematic recipe for understanding Kafka's parables”. Emrich answers this question positively and sees “the saving function of Kafka's world of parables” as a theme in the parable. On the other hand, Allemann emphasizes that the supposed instruction is “absolutely diabolical irony” (5), in that the alluring transcendence only sets in motion a “mental vicious circle” from which there is no escape. According to Allemann, the text only pretends to explain the essence of the parables. In truth, the movement of the text is such that it "systematically pulls the ground" that it creates "back from under our feet". In this respect, it can be understood as a “pure paradigm of Kafka's poetry”, which repeatedly eludes its significance and deconstructs itself.

A simplified interpretation of the work consists in seeing the incomprehensible, spiritual and supersensible represented in the parables mentioned. These seem to be of no use in real life; However, if you believe in this supernatural, it also makes you forget the worries of everyday life. The assertion made by the “other” in the form of a bet that this is also a simile is correct in the opinion of the “first”. When “the second” notes that he “only won in parable”, he leaves the supersensible level and promptly receives the answer that he has lost on this level.

Relation to other Kafka works

“From the Parables” shows numerous parallels to the “Little Fable”. So in both the hopelessness is thematized: One cannot grasp parables - when one is on the verge of it, they disappear again. In addition, the advice of the cat ("You just have to change the direction of travel") is a kind of parable, but the teaching of the mouse is no longer useful because it takes it with it to death. So the victory of the "other" in the bet is also a Pyrrhic victory.

Peter Höfle also refers to the short story “ Auf der Galerie ”, in which Kafka uses the same technique. In both short texts, the narrator initially expresses himself in general terms (“Many complained” - “If any ...”) in order to suddenly present the event in a concrete situation, which is then brought back to the general. Höfle also mentions a relationship with “Before the Law”, where the law is presented as “Over”. This legendary “over there” is also found in “Jäger Gracchus”, “The Country Doctor” and “The Silence of the Sirens”. In the latter, there is also an incomprehensible phrase at the end of the text.

Quote

“All these parables really only want to say that the incomprehensible is incomprehensible, and we knew that. But what we struggle with every day are different things. "

Text output

There is a handwritten tradition in the so-called "Ehepaar-Heft" from 1922.
Franz Kafka: The judgment and other stories. Ed. V. Peter Höfle. Frankfurt a. M. 2003. p. 79.

literature

  • Franz Kafka: The judgment and other stories. Ed. V. Peter Höfle. Frankfurt a. M. 2003. pp. 182-184.
  • Beda Allemann: Time and History in Kafka's Work. Göttingen 1998. Ed. D. Kaiser, N. Lohse. Pp. 115-124.

Web links

Wikisource: Building the Great Wall of China  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Kafka: A country doctor and other prose. Ed. V. Peter Höfle. Stuttgart 1995, p. 182.
  2. ^ Kafka commentary on all the stories. Ed. V. Hartmut Binder, Winkler, 1975.
  3. ^ Beda Allemann: Time and history in the work of Kafka. Ed. V. D. Kaiser, N. Lohse. Göttingen 1998. SS 115.
  4. ^ Beda Allemann: Time and history in the work of Kafka. Ed. V. D. Kaiser, N. Lohse. Göttingen 1998. p. 115.
  5. ^ Franz Kafka: A country doctor and other prose. Ed. V. Peter Höfle. Stuttgart 2003, p. 182.
  6. ^ Beda Allemann: Time and history in the work of Kafka. Ed. V. D. Kaiser, N. Lohse. Göttingen 1998. p. 117.
  7. ^ Beda Allemann: Time and history in the work of Kafka. Ed. V. D. Kaiser, N. Lohse. Göttingen 1998. p. 115.
  8. ^ Beda Allemann: Time and history in the work of Kafka. Ed. V. D. Kaiser, N. Lohse. Göttingen 1998. p. 11.
  9. ^ Franz Kafka: A country doctor and other prose. Ed. V. Peter Höfle. Stuttgart 2003, p. 183.
  10. ^ Franz Kafka: A country doctor and other prose. Ed. V. Peter Höfle. Stuttgart 2003, p. 183.
  11. ^ Kafka commentary on all the stories. Ed. V. Hartmut Binder, Winkler, 1975.