The Cultural Scope of El Corte Inglés Grandes Armazéns Lisboa is pleased to invite you to the first session of the conference series “A propósito de Kafka” by Ana Rocha. The session will take place on June 21st at 6:30 PM in the Cultural Scope Room of El Corte Inglés Grandes Armazéns Lisboa.
Cycle Synopsis
On July 3rd, 2023, it will mark 140 years since Kafka’s birth in Prague, the eldest of six children born to Hermann and Julie Kafka.
The professor, novelist, and poet Angelo Maria Ripellino (1927-1973), an Italian specialist in Slavic and Russian studies and Italian translator of works by Chekhov, Pasternak, Mayakovsky, and Bely, chose these opening sentences for his work titled “Magical Prague”: “Every day, at around 5 p.m., wearing a bowler hat and a black suit, Franz Kafka returned to his home on Celetná Street. Every night, the writer Jaroslav Hašek proclaimed in taverns to his drinking companions that radicalism is harmful and that progress can only be achieved through obedience to authority. To this day, Prague continues to live under the sign of these two writers who, better than anyone else, expressed the city’s irrevocable condemnation, its deep unease, its quirks, its bad mood, its duplicity, its tricks, and its sinister irony.”
During the 20th century, Kafka’s writings were often banned and ignored in various European countries, with his literature being accused of being “bourgeois,” “sickly,” and “alienating.” Recognized later as an author of uncompromising independence from all political regimes, most of Kafka’s books only gained recognition in France after the Occupation, drawing readers’ attention to aspects in which Kafka already seemed to be anticipating Nazi barbarism and with a series of descriptions that foreshadowed stifling bureaucracy, the terror of the Gulag, and concentration camp universes.
Nearly 100 years after Kafka’s death in 1924 at the age of 41, Kafka’s writing continues to captivate readers with its intensity, clarity, lucidity, and “surgical” attention to details that we look at daily without truly seeing them. After all, what does it mean to be Kafkaesque? To answer this question, I have chosen to present and comment on a trio of works that Kafka wrote before the start of World War I: “The Metamorphosis,” the novella “The Judgment,” and the first seven chapters of “America,” an unfinished novel.
Session Synopsis
June 21st, 6:30 PM | Cultural Scope Room
“The Metamorphosis” (German: “Die Verwandlung”)
The misfortunes of the merchant Gregor Samsa are described, who one day wakes up to catch the train but cannot get out of bed because he has been transformed into a monstrous insect. Kafka never intended for the insect to be identified in a concrete way, allowing readers to speculate freely about the form of this creature’s body. Is it a beetle with a shell? Readings and interpretations abound. What does this “monster” that depends on his parents and sister mean? What relationships are established among the relatives living in the apartment? Loneliness and death are reserved for Gregor, and readers are skillfully led to realize that the metamorphosis suffered by the young man is also and above all the metamorphosis of the family members surrounding him.
Admission is free but requires prior registration.
Pre-registration can be done on the Âmbito Cultural webpage or at the Information Point, Floor 0 of El Corte Inglés Grandes Armazéns Lisboa.
Each session of the conference series requires separate registration.
Registration Link: Âmbito Cultural do El Corte Inglés | Ciclo “A propósito de Kafka” por Ana Rocha – 1ª Sessão – Âmbito Cultural do El Corte Inglés (elcorteingles.pt)
