A Study Concerning the Archiving and Editing Process of Kafka's Manuscripts: An Attempt at Interpretation of Kafka's Works as Dynamic "Writing"

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24652069
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: European literature (English literature excluded)
• Research Institution: Saitama University
• Principal Investigator: MYOJO Kiyoko 埼玉大学, 教養学部, 教授 (90312909)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: ドイツ文学 / カフカ / 文献学 / アーカイブ / 資料 / 編集

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The hypothesis tested by this project is that Kafka's novels are to be read not as static “work” but as dynamic “writing”. In other words, his creation of texts can only be understood deeply by illuminating the network of his whole writings. As an important step for the practice of interpreting his literature based on this supposition, the initial aim of this project was an attempt at a virtual restoration of the original order of the Kafka's manuscripts. After a practical investigation of the archive in the Bodlean Library at Oxford, however, it became clear that the realization of the idea was impossible, because of various lack of records regarding the archiving process of the documents. I therefore changed the orientation of the research and studied the possibilities of new interpretations of Kafka's creative texts by reading them in connection with his private writings, in order to confirm the above hypothesis. The study was successful and I have published a book as a result.

Free Research Field

人文学