Max Brod describes Kafka rolling on the floor with laughter while reading Walser aloud to friends.īoth of them have humorous bureaucratic language in common, but they use it differently. Except Kafka! Kafka read and loved Walser. Walser just didn’t have that many readers during this lifetime, so it’s not as if everyone was busy talking about whether he was funny or not. At that point people saw the tragic Kafka (died young of tuberculosis story of a guy becoming a beetle the Holocaust) and I think people didn’t figure out that he was funny for quite some time. Most of his reception happened just after World War II. He didn’t have a huge reception in his lifetime. Susan Bernofsky: Yes, but not everyone thought they were funny.īut think about Kafka. Ryan Mihaly: Were they funny in their time, too? Susan Bernofsky: Both Kafka and Walser use bureaucratic language to comic effect. And both Walser and Kafka write in this old, highly formal style, which comes off as very comical in English. Ryan Mihaly: The Metamorphosis and Robert Walser’s Microscripts both deal with these cramped spaces – Microscripts being these texts written on the back of business cards, newspapers, pamphlets, and so on. The conclusion of a conversation with translator Susan Bernofsky. Conversations with Susan Bernofsky, Part 3 JBy Ryan Mihaly and Susan Bernofsky
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