Ghosts from the Dungeons of the World within: Kafka's "Ein Brudermord"

"Ein Brudermord" seems in many ways atypical of Kafka's work as a whole, and the apparently gratuitous violence it depicts has puzzled readers for years. This essay attempts an integrated analysis of various levels of signification, offering new evidence which connects the work to Kaf...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Monatshefte (Madison, Wis. : 1946) Wis. : 1946), 1981-04, Vol.73 (1), p.51-62
Main Author: Mitchell, Breon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthologies
Expressionism
Myths
Printing
Short stories
Signification
Street crime
Tales
Writing
Zionism
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:"Ein Brudermord" seems in many ways atypical of Kafka's work as a whole, and the apparently gratuitous violence it depicts has puzzled readers for years. This essay attempts an integrated analysis of various levels of signification, offering new evidence which connects the work to Kafka's reading during the winter of 1916-17. In particular it is argued that specific texts by Rudolf Fuchs ("Der Sündenfall") and Herbert von Fuchs ("Unsere tägliche Höllenfahrt"), appearing along with the first printing of Kafka's "Ein Traum" in Das jüdische Prag, reinforced his interest in both the story of Cain and Abel and a parallel internal psychological conflict. Cain and Abel, he seems to suggest, have their counterparts not only in the streets of the city, but in the inner landscape of the mind as well, and "Ein Brudermord" represents an expanded and complex variation on this theme.
ISSN:0026-9271
1934-2810