Transforming ‘The Metamorphosis’: On the challenges of translating Kafka. | Room 2, Taylor Institution Library, Oxford OX1 3NA

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Selected Stories by Franz Kafka presents new renderings of short works by a master of the form. Award-winning translator and scholar Mark Harman offers sensitive English renderings of Franz Kafka’s unique German prose—terse, witty, laden with ambiguities and double meanings. Included are sixteen stories, arranged chronologically to convey a sense of Kafka’s artistic development. Some, like “The Judgment,” “In the Penal Colony,” “A Hunger Artist,” and “The Transformation” (usually, though misleadingly, Harman argues, translated as “The Metamorphosis”), represent the pinnacle of Kafka’s achievement. Although Kafka has frequently been cast as a loner, in part because of his quintessential depictions of modern alienation, he had several close companions. Harman draws on Kafka’s diaries, extensive correspondence, and engagement with early twentieth-century debates about Darwinism, psychoanalysis, and Zionism to construct a rich portrait of Kafka in his world. An in-depth biographical introduction and accompanying annotations highlight the wordplay and cultural allusions of the original German, pregnant with irony and humour often missed by English readers. Join us to hear Mark Harman read from his new translations, after which he, Carolin Duttlinger, and Barry Murnane will be in conversation with Ian Ellison, to explore the challenges and rewards of translating Kafka’s stories and of exploring the personal, literary, and cultural contexts of these multi-faceted stories. If you’ve never read Kafka before or if you already love him, you’ll still want Harman’s Selected Stories.’ Michael Dirda, The Washington Post ‘Richly illustrated and filled with fascinating references to contemporary sources, critical commentary and relevant passages from Kafka’s letters and diaries… Anyone interested in knowing more about these stories will find this volume a treasure trove.’ Karen Leeder, Times Literary Supplement The Discussion Panel Carolin Duttlinger is Professor of German Literature and Culture at the University of Oxford and the Ockenden Fellow in German at Wadham College. She co-directs the Oxford Kafka Research Centre and is the Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded “Kafka’s Transformative Communities”. She is the author of several books, including Kafka and Photography, The Cambridge Introduction to Franz Kafka, and Attention and Distraction in Modern German Literature, Thought, and Culture. Ian Ellison is the post-doctoral researcher on the AHRC-funded “Kafka’s Transformative Communities” project. He was longlisted for the 2024 Observer Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism and in 2023 he was shortlisted for the Peirene-Stevns Translation Prize. His first book, Late Europeans and Melancholy Fiction at the Turn of the Millennium appeared in 2022. Mark Harmanis Professor Emeritus of German and English at Elizabethtown College. He translated various German-language writers, including Franz Kafka, Rainer Maria Rilke, Hermann Hesse, and a number of contemporary writers. He edited & co-translated, Robert Walser Rediscovered: Stories, Fairy-Tale Plays, and Critical Responses. Author of numerous book chapters, articles, and essays on Franz Kafka, he has written widely about German and Irish literature for journals and newspapers in the US, UK and Ireland. Born and raised in Dublin, Mark lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Barry Murnaneis Associate Professor in German at St. John’s College in the University of Oxford. He is a co-investigator on the AHRC-funded project Kafka's Transformative Communities and a co-director of the Oxford Kafka Research Centre. He is the author of Verkehr mit Gespenstern: Gothic und Moderne bei Franz Kafka Please email kafka@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk as soon as possible if you have any mobility or access needs. Information Source: TORCH | eventbrite