Zadie’s Kafka
Zadie Smith’s intriguing lecture Kafka versus the Novel is given print form in the autumn edition of London’s Jewish Quarterly. Frustratingly, the hyperlink on the page links to a tantalising extract:
“Kafka is the novel’s bad conscience. His work demonstrates a purity of intention, a precision of language and a level of metaphysical commitment that the novel partially comprehends but is unable to replicate without, in the process, ceasing to be a novel at all. Consequently, Kafka makes novelists nervous. He doesn’t seem to write like the rest of us. He is either too good for the novel or the novel is not quite good enough for him. . . “
Other Splinters posts of interest:
- Zadie on Kafka again
- Judgement Day again
- Zadie Smith lecture
- Kafka and Smog The secondary literature on Kaf…
- Happy Birthday Franz Blow up the balloons, ligh…
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