Prognostic and Diagnostic History: Franz Kafka’s ‘A Country Doctor’ and Its Japanese Afterlife tomorrow
Zoom ID: 250 682 5159
Password: cchinese20
Description
Franz Kafka’s short story “A Country Doctor” (Ein Landarzt, 1919) and the short story collection of the same name delivers readers to a surreal, rural setting, puzzling characters, and a plot like something out of a dream. Produced 88 years after the publication of Kafka’s collection, Yamamura Kōji’s 21-minute animated short film “Kafka: A Country Doctor” (カフカ 田舎医者, Kafuka: Inaka Isha) invites its viewer to explore Kafka’s story through a new medium, giving it a fresh context and perspective, reverberating the surrealistic features of the short story. Previous scholarship has considered the psycho-analytic and psychological backdrop of this story, but this talk ventures to consider the personal and global contexts that inform the story and Kafka’s legacy in Japan leading up to the short film.
About Adam J. Toth
Adam J. Toth is a visiting assistant professor of German at Roanoke College in Salem, Va. He earned his doctorate in German literature and culture from Penn State University in 2017, with a dissertation on Franz Kafka’s literary works and their relationship to 19th century race theory. His co-edited book, “Race Theory and Literature: Dissemination, Criticism, Intersections” with Pauline Moret-Jankus, builds on this research. Additional research and teaching interests include LGBTQ history in Europe, the relationship between war and literature, German and Austrian culinary culture, and German youth culture.
SPONSORING DEPARTMENT, OFFICE, OR ORGANIZATION:
Modern Languages Department, English Department, Asian Studies
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Darwin H. Tsen, dtsen@carthage.edu