Carolin Duttlinger, ed. Franz Kafka in Context (Cambridge: UP, 2017)

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) lived through one of the most turbulent periods in modern history, witnessing a world war, the dissolution of an empire and the foundation of a new nation state. But the early twentieth century was also a time of social progress and aesthetic experimentation. Kafka's novels and short stories reflect their author's keen but critical engagement with the big questions of his time, and yet often Kafka is still cast as a solitary figure with little or no connection to his age. Franz Kafka in Context aims to redress this perception.

Carolin Duttlinger and Dora Osborne, eds. Kafkas Betrachtung: Neue Lektüren (Freiburg: Rombach, 2014)

Kafkas Betrachtung steht zu Unrecht im Schatten seiner späteren Texte. Tatsächlich markiert Kafkas früher Erzählband einen wichtigen Knoten- und Wendepunkt in seinem Leben und Schreiben, an dem sich verschiedene Entwicklungslinien auf folgenreiche Weise überschneiden. Sein erstes Buch ist für Kafka Anlaß, das bisher Geschriebene Revue passieren zu lassen, zugleich markiert der Publikationsprozeß seinen – für Kafka mit durchaus widersprüchlichen Gefühlen verbundenen – Eintritt in den Raum professioneller Autorschaft.

Manfred Engel and Ritchie Robertson, eds. Kafka: Religion and Modernity (Oxford Kafka Studies 3) (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2014)

Religion is once again a prominent theme in academic debates. Hence this collection of essays takes up the vexed question of Kafka’s relation to religion and addresses it in new ways. The essays fall into three groups. The first group deals with discussions of theology (primarily Christian theology) in the early twentieth century; the second opens up new terrain by exploring the context of specifically Jewish heterodoxy in the same period; while the final section inquires directly into religious elements in the themes, motifs, and structures of Kafka’s literary work.

Carolin Duttlinger, ed. The Cambridge Introduction to Franz Kafka (Cambridge: UP, 2013)

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) is one of the most influential of modern authors, whose darkly fascinating novels and stories - where themes such as power, punishment and alienation loom large - have become emblematic of modern life. This Introduction offers a clear and accessible account of Kafka's life, work and literary influence and overturns many myths surrounding them. His texts are in fact far more engaging, diverse, light-hearted and ironic than is commonly suggested by clichés of 'the Kafkaesque'.

Manfred Engel and Ritchie Robertson, eds. Kafka, Prague, and the First World War (Oxford Kafka Studies 2) (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2012)

The First World War, described by George F. Kennan as "the great seminal catastrophe of this century", also had an impact on Kafka's life and work. The essays in this volume examine 1) the ways in which the War became the subject of both experience and discourse in the multi-ethnic city of Prague, and 2) the effects it had on the city's literature and culture, both Czech and German. Against this background, the contributors then 3) look for reflections of contemporary history in Kafka's war-time writings and discuss the distinctive kind of mimesis performed by his texts.

Manfred Engel and Ritchie Robertson, eds. Kafka and Short Modernist Prose (Oxford Kafka Studies 1) (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2011)

Short prose was the format Kafka favoured for many of his most important works. It was also the medium of much innovatory Modernist writing in the period 1900-1933. The essays in this volume investigate Kafka's short prose in relation to that written by his contemporaries (incl. Nietzsche, R. Walser, Döblin, Benn, Musil, Broch), thus helping to locate Kafka more precisely within the literary context of his time.