SYLLABUS
HONR 348 “Kafka and Film” (Spring 2014)
Professor:
Office:
Office Hours:
Telephone:
E-mail:
Peter Beicken
JMZ 3207
45 min. on class days/by appointment (exact dates/times depend on
schedule)
x54098
beic@umd.edu
Class Meetings:
Either Tu/Th (pm)
Pre- or co-requisites:
The course does not require any prerequisites
Course Description: (University culture seems to be favouring as complete a course
description as you can give. Rather than a brief catalogue description, give enough
information to allow students to make as informed a choice as possible about taking your
course. Mention the course format—lecture, discussion, etc.—and the major assignments
and expectations.)
This course in the format of lecture, in-class discussion and group activity takes a fresh
look at major works by Franz Kafka (1883-1924), his affinity to the cinema and use of
cinematic means and techniques (e.g. the gaze, flashback, parallel action, gesture and body
language, etc.) in his writings. In addition, the course examines adaptations of Kafka
narratives (e.g. the Orson Welles and David Jones adaptations of The Trial, 1961, 1992)
and other films that use Kafkaian themes (e.g. Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Kafka’, 1991).
Kafka is a major figure of world literature and modernity. His works reveal a very
unique visuality that has often been called dream-like, even surrealist. Above all, his
writings show an intriguing intersection of different media, a special intermediality, i.e. an
interaction of the literary and the visual, of the imaginative narrative and the cinematic
imaginary. Notably, there are many elements of film that Kafka both anticipated and
employed in his writings after he encountered the early cinema in Prague starting around
1908.
The city as a sphere of open and hidden exchanges, visual, aesthetic and erotic is a
major theme in Kafka’s narratives and diaries. The urban flaneur, conceived of and refined
by Baudelaire, is a major figure in Kafka’s early works such as Description of a Struggle,
Wedding Preparations in the Country, Contemplation. Kafka subverted the role of the
classical flaneur that had a superior stance, and he made this figure of the artist as
detached and elevated observer of the urban sphere into a character of insecurity, angst,
and existential anguish. Both theater and film inspired Kafka to enhance the theatricality
of his narratives and the ‘filmic’ vision of many of his works, notably in The Stoker, with
sometimes grotesque forms of body language. His visual style employs gestures
excessively often portraying the uncanny in comical ways and using exaggeration and
excess to ridicule the petrified, oppressive orders of patriarchy and authoritarian rule of
what Walter Benjamin called Kafka’s “world of fathers”.
Kafka’s works inspired film adaptations such as Welles’ The Trial and Jones’ The
Trial (scripted by Harold Pinter). Both are fascinating cinematic meditations on Kafka’s
most enigmatic novel that presents a puzzling tale about Josef. K. who is an accused man
struggling with an invisible, mysterious court. Other confrontations between protagonist
and the hostile environment of a counterworld include Kafka’s stunning stories The
Metamorphosis, The Judgment, A Country Doctor (adapted by Cyril Tuschi, Nightland,
1985), The Hunger Artist, and Kafka’s final novel, The Castle. Michael Haneke adapted
this labyrinthian tale about an unending quest for acceptance in his avant-garde film The
Castle (1997).
For today’s students who grow up in a predominantly visual culture and are
inundated with a flood of images, a course like “Kafka and Film” serves as an introduction
to the intriguing intersection of the literary imagination and the cinematic imaginary. They
are led to explore how Kafka’s innovative uses of the visual are akin to or influenced by
cinema. Usually, students are keen on film as ‘the movies’ mean easy entertainment.
However, Kafka’s use of the cinematic enhances the visual culture of his own writing (and
of film) with an distinct sense of art and meaning which represent complex systems of
signification. Experience with this course has shown that students are intrigued by the
interaction of the media. They are fascinated with the power and artistic depth the
intermediality of Kafka’s writing creates through the multi-layered interplay of the literary
and the cinematic.
Course Goals/LOAs:
This course aims to familiarize students with a major writer of modernity, Franz Kafka,
whose love for and use of the visual and film created innovative interplays of the different
media. Students will also be introduced to the basics of film studies, major theories as well
as key concepts for analysis and interpretation. They will be prepared and trained to
understand the complexities and ramifications of intermediality, i.e. the interaction of the
literary imagination bent on the visual and the cinematic imaginary that creates the
appearance of tangible realities on screen.
In addition, students will explore the more traditional relationship of literature and
film: the adaptation of literary works. By the end of this course students can expect to be
able to understand the major differences and commonalities between literary works and
films. Having learned new theoretical concepts for media-specific inquiries and having
practiced analysis and interpretation, they will be able to appreciate the intricacies of the
intermedial. They will also be able to articulate their insights intelligently and
communicate their findings with appropriate skill.
Grading: (for example)
20% participation in class
10% oral presentation in class (in teams and individually)
15% quizzes, in-class assignments, etc.
25x% term paper
10% midterm exam
20% final exam (cumulative)
Grading Scale:
Normal grading scale (A+ 100-98, A 97-93, A- 92-90 etc. F 59-0)
Course materials:
Textbooks required:
1. Franz Kafka, The Complete Stories. Ed. Nahum Glatzer. New York: Schocken Books.
1995 (ISBN 0-8052-1055-5) $15,- (CS)
2. Franz Kafka, Diaries 1910-1923. New York: Schocken Books, 1988. (ISBN 0-8052-0906-9)
$16,- (D)
3. Franz Kafka: The Trial. (New tr. Breon Mitchell) NY: Schocken Books, 1999. (ISBN 0-80520999-9) $13,-(T)
4. Franz Kafka: The Sons. New York: Schocken Books, 1989. (ISBN 0-8052-0886-0) $11.95
(So)
5. Franz Kafka: The Castle. (New tr.By Mark Harman).NY: Schocken Books.1998(ISBN 08052-1106-3) $14,- (C)
In addition, chapters/excerpts from critical works will be put on ELMS/CANVAS):
1. Robert Alter: Imagined Cities. Urban Experience and the Language of the Novel. 2003.
2. Mark Anderson: Kafka’s Clothes. Ornament and Aestheticism in the Habsburg Fine de Siecle. 1992.
3. Charles Baudelaire. The Painter of Modern Life and other Essays. 1995..
4. Peter Beicken: Franz Kafka. The Trial (“Der Process.”) Interpretation. 2005. Here: pp. 162-171
5. Walter Benjamin. “The Return of the Flaneur.” 1928. “Kafka” 1934.
6. Timothy Corrigan (ed.). Film and Literature: An Introduction and Reader. 22011.
7. Carolin Duttlinger: Kafka and Photography, 2007.
8. Susan Hayward. Cinema Studies. The Key Concepts. 32006.
9. Ritchie Robertson. Franz Kafka. Introduction. 2004.
9. Georg Simmel, The Metropolis and the Mental Life. Sociology of Georg Simmels. 1950.
10. Alan Spiegel: Fiction and the Camera Eye. Visual Consciousness in Film and the Modern Novel.
1976.
11. Gregory Woods: A History of Gay Literature. The Male Tradition. 1998.
12. Hanns Zischler: Kafka Goes to the Movies. 2003.
13. A Franz Kafka encyclopedia. 2005.
Schedule : Please include daily/weekly readings as well as a thematic progression and
due dates for major assignments.
Week 1
Franz Kafka. Introduction.
Th
Goals of the course; first handouts; Clothes, On the Tram. The urban flaneur:
. (Baudelaire, Simmel, Benjamin)
Week 2
Tu
Contemplation (CS): Clothes, On the Tram, Confidence Trickster (Anderson)
Th
The Tradesman, Window Gazing, Rejection (Robertson)
Week 3
Tu
Description of a Struggle (CS); ‘cruising the city’: flanerie, alienation, gender
confusion (Woods)
Th
Wedding Preparations in the Country (1st ms; CS); work and the isolated self
Week 4
Tu
Wedding (cont.); Unhappiness (CS). The Urban World (Diaries=D, 40-45)
Introduction of the father figure (Benjamin)
Th
The Stoker (from ‘America’), (So) Cinematic vision and authority figures, family
(Duttlinger, Zischler)
Week 5
Tu
The Judgment (So): Father-son conflict; patriarchal rule (Benjamin)
Th
The Metamorphosis (So): Family and fantasy (Anderson)
Week 6
Tu
The Trial: ‘The Arrest’ (Chap. 1) Partial screening of Orson Welles & David
Jones, The Trial. (Alter, Beicken)
Th
The Trial: Chap 2-5. Fragment: ‘Public Prosecutor’ (Hayward)
Week 7
Tu
The Trial: Chap 6-9; ‘Before the Law’
Th
Chap., 10; Fragment: ‘The Building / House’ (Midterm, takehome, due Week 8)
Week 8
Tu
Orson Welles, The Trial. Screening (Spiegel)
Th
Welles, Trial, dis.
(Midterm due)
Spring Break
Week 9
Tu
David Jones, The Trial (Corrigan)
Th
Jones, Trial, dis. Comparison with Welles (Hayward) (hand out topics for paper, due Week 10)
Week 10
Tu
In the Penal Colony (CS)
Th
A Report to an Academy (CS)
Week 11
Tu
Up on the Gallery (CS); A Country Doctor (CS)
Th
Cyril Tuschi, Nightland (adaptation of A Country Doctor) (outline for paper due)
Week 12
Tu
Prometheus, Poseidon, Silence of the Sirens (CS)
Th
The Castle: Chap. 1-3
Week 13
Tu
The Castle: Chap. 4-10
Th
The Castle: Chap. 11-15
Week 14
Tu
Michael Haneke, The Castle (partial screening & dis.) (Corrigan)
Th
A Hunger Artist (CS)
( paper due)
Week 15
Tu
Steven Soderbergh, Kafka (screening; self-assessment of your oral participation due)
Th
Steven Soderbergh, Kafka (dis.) – Conclusion (hand in anonymous evaluation of/comments
about course)
Final Exam:
Follows the schedule of classes for the assigned final exam time.
Make-up Policy: students who miss the regular final with an acceptable excuse can take a
make-up exam at an agreed upon date and time.
University Policies:
The course follows all applicable University Policies such as:
1. Students with disabilities should contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester
to discuss any accommodation for this course.
2. The University has approved a Code of Academic Integrity
(http://www.shc.umd.edu/code.html) which prohibits students from cheating on exams,
plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses without
authorization, buying papers, facilitating academic dishonesty, submitting fraudulent
documents, and forging signatures. Plagiarism policy: all quotations taken from other
authors, including from the Internet, must be indicated by quotation marks and referenced.
Paraphrasing must be referenced as well. The following University of Maryland Honor
Pledge, approved by the University Senate, should be handwritten and signed on the front
page of all papers, projects or other academic assignments submitted for evaluation in this
course: "I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized
assistance on this assignment/examination."
3. Religious observance: Please inform your instructor of any intended absences for
religious observance well in advance.
http://www.umd.edu/catalog/index.cfm/show/content.section/c/27/ss/1584/s/1540
4. Regular attendance and participation in this class is the best way to grasp the
concepts and principles being discussed. However, in the event that a class must be missed
due to an illness, the policy in this class is as follows:
For every medically necessary absence from class (lecture, recitation, or lab), a
reasonable effort should be made to notify the instructor in advance of the class. When
returning to class, students must bring a note identifying the date of and reason for the
absence, and acknowledging that the information in the note is accurate.
If a student is absent more than ___ time(s), the instructor may require
documentation signed by a health care professional.
If a student is absent on days when tests are scheduled or papers are due [or other
such events as specified in the syllabus] he or she is required to notify the instructor in
advance, and upon returning to class, bring documentation of the illness, signed by a
health care professional.
5. Unless otherwise directed, students are expected to remain in the classroom for 15
minutes in the unlikely event that the instructor should not arrive on time. After 15
minutes, it may be assumed that class will not be held.
6. In case of inclement weather: please be specific about procedures; see the faculty
handbook: http://www.faculty.umd.edu/teach/attendance.html
7. Course evaluations are a part of the process by which the University of Maryland
seeks to improve teaching and learning. Results are also used for promotion and tenure
decisions. Your participation in this official system is critical to the success of the process.
All information submitted to CourseEvalUM is confidential. Instructors and
administrators can only view group summaries of evaluations. Instructors and college
administrators cannot identify which submissions belong to which students. Participating
ensures that your opinions will count. By completing all of your evaluations, you will be
able to see all campus results posted to Testudo in January or June.
8. This syllabus may be subject to change. Students will be notified in advance of
important changes that could affect grading, assignments, etc.