8 - The case for a political reading

Summary

One of the images of Kafka propagated by Kafka criticism, and supported by a much-quoted remark Kafka made in his diary, is of the solitary writer whose subject matter is his own 'dreamlike inner life' (6.viii.14; D2: 77). Occasionally Kafka's diary entry on the outbreak of the Great War four days earlier is cited as proof of his distance from the political world: 'Germany has declared war on Russia. - Swimming in the afternoon' (D2: 75). But the interpretation sometimes placed on these words, that they belong to a writer far removed from the great events of his time, warrants investigation. Do they or do they not articulate emotional or intellectual distance, unconcern, even aloofness? In contrast, another diary entry, from the previous year: 'Don't forget Kropotkin!' (15.x.13; D1: 330) has attracted relatively little critical attention, even though Max Brod recalls that the memoirs of this nineteenth-century Russian anarchist were amongst Kafka's favourite books. Where it has been commented on it has often been played down. Here, too, the elliptical form of the diary entry itself does not help us make up our minds. What are we to read into these words: an intellectual or emotional commitment, a special indebtedness - or simply a note on an overdue library book?