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8. Kafka’s Names

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Transforming Kafka
This chapter is in the book Transforming Kafka
8Kafka’s NamesKafka’s play with his characters’ names, and in particular, his play with variations on his own name and that of his sometime fiancée Felice Bauer, has long been recognized as a significant element of his fictional universe.66 What is still open for debate is how readers should most ap-propriately react to such names as constitutive elements of the literary text – including when that text is a translation. For there may of course also be onomastic effects generated specifically by translations, most obviously the degree to which characters’ names retain or shed or alter their particular textual resonances in the transition from Kafka’s origi-nal German to the respective target language.Traditional Kafka criticism has tended by and large to regard his characters’ names as repositories of deeper meaning deliberately and earnestly buried by Kafka for subsequent excavation by equally ear-nest readers. But it is also clear that Kafka, like many a writer before him, quite simply enjoyed playing with names, not to mention playing with readers. The present chapter will therefore examine just some of the more significant readerly implications of this onomastic play in the major narratives, with due attention to the distinction between what Kafka may quite possibly have intended or claimed he intended certain names to mean and the various interpretive effects they may subse-quently have had (or arguably could have) on his readers.His own surname was clearly at the very heart of Kafka’s interest in names and their implications. The name Kafka originated, long before 66See, for example, Tauber (1948: 153–4), Levi (1966), Politzer (1966: 234–43), Heller (1974: 123–4), Rajec (1977), Robertson (2004: 40).
© 2018 University of Toronto Press, Toronto

8Kafka’s NamesKafka’s play with his characters’ names, and in particular, his play with variations on his own name and that of his sometime fiancée Felice Bauer, has long been recognized as a significant element of his fictional universe.66 What is still open for debate is how readers should most ap-propriately react to such names as constitutive elements of the literary text – including when that text is a translation. For there may of course also be onomastic effects generated specifically by translations, most obviously the degree to which characters’ names retain or shed or alter their particular textual resonances in the transition from Kafka’s origi-nal German to the respective target language.Traditional Kafka criticism has tended by and large to regard his characters’ names as repositories of deeper meaning deliberately and earnestly buried by Kafka for subsequent excavation by equally ear-nest readers. But it is also clear that Kafka, like many a writer before him, quite simply enjoyed playing with names, not to mention playing with readers. The present chapter will therefore examine just some of the more significant readerly implications of this onomastic play in the major narratives, with due attention to the distinction between what Kafka may quite possibly have intended or claimed he intended certain names to mean and the various interpretive effects they may subse-quently have had (or arguably could have) on his readers.His own surname was clearly at the very heart of Kafka’s interest in names and their implications. The name Kafka originated, long before 66See, for example, Tauber (1948: 153–4), Levi (1966), Politzer (1966: 234–43), Heller (1974: 123–4), Rajec (1977), Robertson (2004: 40).
© 2018 University of Toronto Press, Toronto

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. 1. Kafka Translated 13
  6. 2. Kafka’s Judgments 31
  7. 3. Kafka’s Metamorphoses 59
  8. 4. Kafka’s Americas 79
  9. 5. Kafka’s Trials 98
  10. 6. Kafka’s Castles 116
  11. 7. Kafka’s Titles 138
  12. 8. Kafka’s Names 158
  13. Conclusion 173
  14. Appendix: Macrotextual Contours 179
  15. Bibliography 189
  16. Index 217
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https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442623798-010

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. 1. Kafka Translated 13
  6. 2. Kafka’s Judgments 31
  7. 3. Kafka’s Metamorphoses 59
  8. 4. Kafka’s Americas 79
  9. 5. Kafka’s Trials 98
  10. 6. Kafka’s Castles 116
  11. 7. Kafka’s Titles 138
  12. 8. Kafka’s Names 158
  13. Conclusion 173
  14. Appendix: Macrotextual Contours 179
  15. Bibliography 189
  16. Index 217
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