About the Book
In the summer of 2016 I received a scholarship by the Franz-Edelmaier-Residenz für Literatur und Menschenrechte in Merano, a health resort in northern Italy. My intention was to complete a recent translation. Although I knew that Franz Kafka had been living in Merano for some months during the spring of 1920, I had not been aware that we could have been actual neighbors – since my apartment was only a few minutes away from the wonderful old villa where Kafka had tried in vain to cure himself of tuberculosis.
After a while I forgot about my translation and started to work on Kafka’s parables, recounting them, as I thought then, for children and, as I think now, for all readers who might prefer to get in touch with his work in a rather playful way. As a matter of fact, in contrast to the idea of Kafka as a nearly inaccessible author, with this book I want to point out the universalism of his work and his thinking, with all of its deep and dark humanity.
Like every great artist, Kafka does not speak exclusively to a cultural elite, but, on the contrary, to each reader at his or her own level of life-experience. There is never the one-and-only interpretation, but always a fascinating multitude of numerous approaches to the vividness heard in more than one truth.
Unfortunately, I can not ask Kafka for permission to play with his parables, but I like to think that he — secure in the integrity of his messages — would have said, of course, try…
About the Author
Stefanie Golisch was born in Germany in 1961. For many years she has been living in Italy as a writer and literary translator. She would like her work to be understood as an exploration of cultural difference and encounter, and — from a larger perspective — as research about sense in an apparently senseless world. Her latest publications include: Anstelle des Mondes, Ludwigsburg 2015 (Pop Verlag) and Postkarten aus Italien, Wien, 2015 (Edizion FZA).
Stefanie Golisch is a member of the Pen Centre of German-Speaking Writers Abroad and Writers in Prison.
How to Buy the Book
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Product details
Paperback: 50 pages
Publisher: Musca Press, an imprint of Hog Press; 1st edition (January 14, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1941892361
ISBN-13: 978-1941892367
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.1 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 4.5 ounces
