Franz Kafka: The Drawings - Hardcover

by Andreas Kilcher (Author), Pavel Schmidt (Author), Judith Butler (Contribution by)

The first book to publish the entirety of Franz Kafka's graphic output, including more than 100 newly discovered drawings

"The figures he drew stand alone as stories in themselves."--Lauren Christensen, New York Times Book Review

"A sensational new book [that] reveals these hitherto hidden artworks for the first time. . . . This valuable volume allows us to see how, for Kafka, word and image walk arm in arm."--Benjamin Balint, Jewish Review of Books

The year 2019 brought a sensational discovery: hundreds of drawings by the writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924) were found in a private collection that for decades had been kept under lock and key. Until now, only a few of Kafka's drawings were widely known. Although Kafka is renowned for his written work, his drawings are evidence of what his literary executor Max Brod termed his "double talent." Irresistible and full of fascinating figures, shifting from the realistic to the fantastic, the grotesque, the uncanny, and the carnivalesque, they illuminate a previously unknown side of the quintessential modernist author.

Kafka's drawings span his full career, but he drew most intensively in his university years, between 1901 and 1907. An entire booklet of drawings from this period is among the many new discoveries, along with dozens of loose sheets. Published for the first time in English, these newly available materials are collected with his known works in a complete catalogue raisonné of more than 240 illustrations, reproduced in full color. Essays by Andreas Kilcher and Judith Butler provide essential background for this lavish volume, interpreting the drawings in their own right while also reconciling their place in Kafka's larger oeuvre.

Author Biography

Andreas Kilcher is professor of literature and cultural studies at ETH Zurich. Pavel Schmidt is an artist and researcher. Judith Butler is Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Kurt Beals is associate professor of German and comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis.