The work of Kafka [...] has been subjected to a mass ravishment by [...] armies of interpreters.(Susan Sontag,
Against Interpretation, 1963)
According to the author, “Das Urteil” [“The Judgment”] was written during the night of 22nd / 23rd September 1912. The text marks the beginning of Franz Kafka's first productive period as a writer and was first published in: Arkadia. Ein Jahrbuch für Dichtkunst [Arcadia. A Yearbook for Poetry. Leipzig 1913] under the editorship of Kafka's friend and mentor Max Brod. It has been reprinted innumerable times and translated into many languages. Innocuously subtitled “Eine Geschichte” [“A Story”], the narrative provides a prototype of the parable form typical for most of Kafka's writings: a seemingly plausible event or chain of events,
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Citation: Knapp, Gerhard P.. "Das Urteil". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 July 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14609, accessed 23 November 2024.]
