Kafkas Schreibtisch.
Der Schriftsteller bei der Arbeit

Kafka's texts do not simply open up to the reader; on the contrary, they pose questions and riddles, even closing themselves off or provoking resistance that countless interpretations have tried to overcome. Instead of offering further interpretations, this evening will attempt to approach Kafka's texts from their practical side: the way in which Kafka worked as a writer. In fact, Kafka often explicitly addressed his literary work, repeatedly in theatrical images: in Scenes Of Reading and in Scenes of Writing that are partly dramatic, partly comic. Scenes like these: Kafka looking at displays in bookshops; Kafka "greedily" reading magazines in cafés; Kafka's meticulous observation of his desk as a kind of stage; Kafka reading and writing at his desk at night; imaginary desks in Kafka's literary texts. And all this is not only dramatised as a struggle to write, but also surprisingly mischievous, with a wink and self-irony.

Kafka's autobiographical and literary texts are rich in such scenes, which are here contextualised together for the first time. They are brought to life in a dramatic reading by Graziella Rossi and Helmut Vogel. At the same time, they are categorised and commented on by the literary scholar and Kafka researcher Andreas Kilcher. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Kafka's death, he is publishing Kafkas Werkstatt. Der Schriftsteller bei der Arbeit (C.H. Beck Verlag, 2024), in which he traces Kafka's working methods.