Basic Kafka

Published together for the first time are selections from all Kafka's writings: The Metamorphosis, Josephine The Singer, plus his short stories, parables, and his personal diaries and letters.

The Judgment, Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, A Report to the Academy, A Country Doctor, The Burrow, Investigations of a Dog or On Substance, Hunger Artist, Josephine the Songstress or The Mouse Folk; Josef K.!, The Messenger & Nocturnal Deliberations -a newly expanded Second Edition (9 Stories & 3 Novel Excerpts) with a Postscript on the Translator's Art. This translation of Kafka has a dual purpose, for starters it intends to provide English readers with a much better translation: that Kafka's prose should find a more fitting analogy in modern (American) English whereby it should come to life to a greater degree, and that his underlying philosophy—and I say philosophy in the greater sense—thus, should be grasped more readily. The second purpose is to explore issues regarding translation per se: what is the proper role of the translator and why is it that the vast majority of translations tend to leave the typical reader perplexed and, quite frankly, dissatisfied? The stories and excerpts included in this second edition have been carefully chosen to really bring the reader to the core issues that make manifest Kafka’s literary genius. This book also contains a short postscript on the art of translation that argues against the current modus operandi of translation theory, indeed, it goes so far as to quote from Kafka's diaries—on his state of mind in composing—as well as from Schleiermacher and early Roman translators on the responsibility of the translator to capture the spirit of the work in an imaginative manner. Kafka was struggling in his writings with matters that go beyond the normal concerns and my intention in this translation is to remain true to Kafka’s aims. Thus, this translation may prove valuable not only for the general readership but likewise for those who wish to study the intricacies of translation of text that deals with the most important matters. All the same, one should never neglect the humorous side and the joy to be discovered in having the last laugh.

Provides a biography of Franz Kafka along with critical views of his work.

A culturally-influential and celebrated author, Kafka is generally considered to be one of the most accomplished writers of the 20th century. In this boxed set are collected together three of his major works, including the maginificent 'Metamorphosis and Other Stories'.

Can one speak of Kafka's heroes as "characters"? If so, why is it so hard to define their characteristics? If not, how is the reader persuaded to accompany them on their existential journeys, accepting their behavior as falling within the realm of human logic? This study argues that Kafka's fiction has two conflicting premises: the subjective impossibility of human existence, foreclosing all hope of "meaning" in individual actions; and the ordered structure of human thoughts which assign meaning to the smallest event and analyze endlessly the behavior of other people. Kafka's characters are always, either potentially or actually, moving in both directions at once, earnestly building up a continuous logic to their actions while skeptically dismantling their own pretensions to existence. The device of the circumscribed narrator, congruent with the hero, knowing only what the hero knows, yet not identical with him, enables Kafka to contain both fundamental tendencies in a single sentence. Although Kafka is widely read, his works seem to give rise very easily to misconceptions; this study is designed primarily to facilitate an intelligent reading of Kafka. Without imposing answers of its own, it seeks to foster an awareness of the problems of perspective and presentation which Kafka engages.

This book uses insights from the cognitive sciences to illuminate Kafka’s poetics, exemplifying a paradigm for literary studies in which cognitive-scientific insights are brought to bear directly on literary texts. The volume shows that the concept of "cognitive realism" can be a critically productive framework for exploring how textual evocations of cognition correspond to or diverge from cognitive realities, and how this may affect real readers. In particular, it argues that Kafka’s evocations of visual perception (including narrative perspective) and emotion can be understood as fundamentally enactive, and that in this sense they are "cognitively realistic". These cognitively realistic qualities are likely to establish a compellingly direct connection with the reader’s imagination, but because they contradict folk-psychological assumptions about how our minds work, they may also leave the reader unsettled. This is the first time a fully interdisciplinary research paradigm has been used to explore a single author’s fictional works in depth, opening up avenues for future research in cognitive literary science.

The legal system is often denounced as "Kafkaesque"—but what does this really mean? This is the question Douglas E. Litowitz tackles in his critical reading of Franz Kafka's writings about the law. Going far beyond Kafka's most familiar works—such as The Trial—Litowitz assembles a broad array of works that he refers to as "Kafka's legal fiction"—consisting of published and unpublished works that deal squarely with the law, as well as those that touch upon it indirectly, as in political, administrative, and quasi-judicial procedures. Cataloguing, explaining, and critiquing this body of work, Litowitz brings to bear all those aspects of Kafka's life that were connected to law—his legal education, his career as a lawyer, his drawings, and his personal interactions with the legal system. A close study of Kafka's legal writings reveals that Kafka held a consistent position about modern legal systems, characterized by a crippling nihilism. Modern legal systems, in Kafka's view, consistently fail to make good on their stated pretensions—in fact often accomplish the opposite of what they promise. This indictment, as Litowitz demonstrates, is not confined to the legal system of Kafka's day, but applies just as surely to our own. A short, clear, comprehensive introduction to Kafka's legal writings and thought, Kafka's Indictment of Modern Law is not uncritical. Even as he clarifies Kafka's experience of and ideas about the law, Litowitz offers an informed perspective on the limitations of these views. His book affords rare insight into a key aspect of Kafka's work, and into the connection between the writing, the writer, and the legal world.

Everything you need to implement stream processing on Apache Kafka? using Kafka Streams and the kqsIDB event streaming database. This totally revised new edition of Kafka Streams in Action has been expanded to cover more of the Kafka platform used for building event-based applications. You'll also find full coverage of ksqlDB, an event streaming database purpose-built for stream processing applications. In Kafka Streams in Action, Second Edition you'll learn how to: Design streaming applications in Kafka Streams with the KStream and the Processor API Integrate external systems with Kafka Connect Enforce data compatibility with Schema Registry Build applications that respond immediately to events in either Kafka Streams or ksqlDB Craft materialized views over streams with ksqlDB Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the technology The lightweight Kafka Streams library provides exactly the power and simplicity you need for event-based applications, real-time event processing, and message handling in microservices. The ksqlDB database makes it a snap to create applications that respond immediately to events, such as real-time push and pull updates. About the book Kafka Streams in Action, Second Edition teaches you to implement stream processing within the Kafka platform. In this easy-to-follow book, you'll explore real-world examples to collect, transform, and aggregate data, work with multiple processors, and handle real-time events. You'll also dive into processing event data with ksqlDB. Practical to the very end, it finishes with testing and operational aspects, such as monitoring, debugging, and gives you the opportunity to explore a few end-to-end projects. About the reader Assumes experience with building Java applications, concepts like threading, serialization, and with distributed systems. No knowledge of Kafka or streaming applications required. About the author Bill Bejeck is a Confluent engineer and a Kafka Streams contributor with over 15 years of software development experience. Bill is also a committer on the Apache Kafka project.