Contemplation (Kafka)
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Contemplation, or Meditation (Betrachtung in German) is a sequence of eighteen short stories by Franz Kafka written between 1904 and 1912. Eight of these stories were published under the same title in the bimonthy Hyperion and were Kafka's first publication[1]. All the stories appear in The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka and were published in a single volume edition by Twisted Spoon Press.
[edit] The Stories
- Children on a Country Road
- Unmasking a Confidence Trickster
- The Sudden Walk
- Resolutions
- Excursion into the Mountains
- Bachelor's Ill Luck
- The Tradesman
- Description of the sysiphean life of a tradesman.
- Absent-minded Window-gazing
- The Way Home
- Passers-by
- The narrator meditates on the vision of a man running down the street in the night. He imagines several scenarios involving the man and another man chasing him, raising issues of the narrator's responsibility for the possible actions of the two men.
- On the Tram
- The narrator stands on a platform waiting for a tram and is impressed by a girl he sees there.
- Clothes
- A contemplation on how fancy and expensive clothes will someday turn old and creased and how the girls wearing these clothes might also feel worn out and dusty when they return home from a party.
- Rejection
- Reflections for Gentlemen-Jockeys
- The idea of winning a horse race is revealed to be an insignificant victory.
- The Street Window
- A window overlooking a street is all that's required to draw a man from his solitude.
- The Wish to be a Red Indian
- The Trees
- Humanity is compared to tree trunks in the snow. Seemingly, a single push could move them, but in reality they are firmly rooted to the ground. This too, however, is only seemingly.
- A comics adaptation of the story, illustrated by Peter Kuper, is included in Give It Up!.
- Unhappiness
[edit] Internal Links
[edit] References
- ^ Kafka, Franz. The Complete Stories. New York: Schocken Books, 1995 p. 472-473.
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| The Works of Franz Kafka |
|---|
| Novels
The Metamorphosis • The Trial • The Castle • Amerika Short Stories 1904-1912: Description of a Struggle • Wedding Preparations in the Country • The Judgment • Contemplation • The Stoker 1914-1917: In the Penal Colony • The Village Schoolmaster (The Giant Mole) • Before the Law • Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor • The Warden of the Tomb • A Country Doctor • The Hunter Gracchus • The Great Wall of China• A Message from the Emperor • A Report to an Academy • A Dream • Up in the Gallery • A Fratricide • The Next Village • A Visit to a Mine • Jackals and Arabs • The Bridge • The Bucket Rider • The New Advocate • An Old Manuscript • The Knock at the Manor Gate • Eleven Sons • My Neighbor • A Crossbreed (A Sport) • The Cares of a Family Man 1917-1923: The Refusal • A Hunger Artist • Investigations of a Dog • A Little Woman • The Burrow • Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk • A Common Confusion • The Truth about Sancho Panza • The Silence of the Sirens • Prometheus • The City Coat of Arms • Poseidon • Fellowship • At Night • The Problem of Our Laws • The Conscription of Troops • The Test • The Vulture • The Helmsman • The Top • A Little Fable • Home-Coming • First Sorrow • The Departure • Advocates • The Married Couple • Give it Up! • On Parables Diaries, Notebooks and Essays The Diaries 1910-1923 • The Blue Octavo Notebooks • The First Long Train Journey (with Max Brod) • The Aeroplanes at Brescia Letters Letter to His Father • Letters to Felice • Letters to Ottla • Letters to Milena • Letters to Family, Friends, and Editors Collections The Complete Stories • The Sons • The Penal Colony • Parables and Paradoxes • The Great Wall of China • Dearest Father |
