Professional Documents
Culture Documents
May 2012
Literary Diaries and Journals
Brooke Allen
In his diaries and his fiction, Kafkas surrealistic representations of the human body
convey a dichotomous understanding of its purpose: at once, his portrayals symbolize the body
as conduit, and the body as coffin. Beneath the intricate descriptions of posture and gesture and
the extreme physical criteria from which he derives interpretations of himself and others,
Kafkas obsession lies in the uncertain unity between mind and body.
When Kafka writes of the body in harmonious integration with the mind, the body
becomes an instrument of truthit exposes and liberates character through imitation and
catharsis. As a pure channel of artistic and intellectual ability, the body becomes the external
outlet of the minds redemption. When this relationship is invertedwhen the mind and body
are divided through discordthe body becomes the minds coffin. Throughout Kafkas writing,
false impressions are made when the minds inclinations are nullified or confined by the
distorted expressions of the body. Thus, physical illness, alienation, and incapacity can compel
analogous depression, anxiety, insecurity within the mind. In this paradoxical way, mental
faculties are overpowered by corporeal weakness, resulting in the minds perpetual dependence
on the body.
In his diary, Kafkas recorded observations, attitudes, and experiences are immersed
in these ideas about the body. As a theater spectator, he is fixated on the impressions given by
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actors through their physical appearances and movements. In the case of Mrs. Tschissik, Kafkas
eyes for exposition are magnified. An entry from 19 December, 1911 reads:
Mrs. Tschissik acted again. Yesterday her body was more beautiful than her face, which seemed
narrower than usual so that the forehead, which is thrown into wrinkles at her first word, was too
striking. The beautifully founded, moderately strong, large body did not belong with her face . . .
with her face distorted, her complexion spoiled by make-up, a stain on her dark-blue short-sleeved
blouse, I felt as though I were speaking to a statue in a circle of pitiless onlookers (142).
Although his critique is severe, it is significant to note that Kafka likens the actress to a
body. Because of this, Mrs. Tschissiks harsh image sabotages her ability to imitate, thereby
creating a false impression in the eyes of her spectators. Kafka observes this mind-body
discordance and, given his fondness for the actress, responds with a level of sympathy that he
Kafkas piercing judgment most often thrives on the awareness of his own deceptive
who took him to be fifteen or sixteen: I couldnt make her change her mind throughout our
entire conversation . . . She was not from Radotin but from Chuchle, which she wouldnt let me
forget (83). Kafkas unusually thin figure precludes his communicationand the young girls
acceptanceof certainty in age. At the same time, this seventeen-year-old girl, with her
seventeen-year-old body, effortlessly implants her hometown into his memory. She is free, and
Kafka is confined.
Kafkas body is the cradle of another false impression: well-being. His former governess,
he writes, thinks I am a tall, healthy gentleman at the beautiful age of twenty-eight who likes to
remember his youth and in general knows what to do with himself (123). Additionally, after a
conversation with his mother about children and marriage, he states, How untrue and childish is
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the conception of me that [she] builds up for herself. She considers me a healthy young man who
suffers a little from the notion that he is ill (143). In these instances, Kafka takes issue with the
misconception that his body is in good condition, for this belief would wrongfully suggest that
In view of these extracts, one may initially be puzzled by evidence of Kafkas strict
adherence to health regimes throughout his life. In Kafka: A Very Short Introduction, author
Ritchie Robertson describes Kafkas gymnastic exercises, done twice daily, naked, in front of an
open window. Robertson also notes that Kafka abstained from sex and alcohol, implemented a
vegetarian diet, and demonstrated an ascetic attitude toward fasting.2 Further writings on Kafka
suggest that he probably suffered from anorexia nervosa.3 It would seem, then, that Kafkas
strivings for health, while perhaps consciously motivated by a desire for physical fitness, are
unconsciously aimed at the ascendancy of mind over body, so that his physical condition may
truly act as a mirror of his internal life. However, these austere practices did not emancipate
Kafkas able mind from his misleading body, but activated a cycle of masochism that further
The characters and themes of Kafkas fiction have many implications for the
representation of his body within his diaries. In particular, The Metamorphosis (1915) and A
Hunger Artist (1922) illustrate the idea of the dichotomous body, both conduit and coffin, in
analogous ways. Gregor Samsa, the protagonist in The Metamorphosis, awakes one morning
after a night of disturbing dreams to find that he has transformed into a giant insect. His human
mind is intact, but he is restricted by this strange and foreign body, as well as an
2Robertson, Ritchie. Kafka: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
3See, for example: Fichter, Manfred. The Anorexia Nervosa of Franz Kafka. International Journal of Eating
Disorders 6.3 (1987): 367-377.
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incomprehensible voice. Gregors new form prevents him from continuing his employment,
much to the hardship of his family. Due to his repulsive appearance, Gregor remains quarantined
in his bedroom. One day, he flees from his room and into the kitchen to see his mother. His
father walks in and, mistaking Gregors movements as an attempt to attack, throws an apple into
his back three times. Badly injured, Gregor returns to his room and chooses to starve to death so
and self-marginalization are uncovered through the experience of the protagonist. In contrast to
Kafkas diaries, these two works contain implicit elements of martyrdom and transcendence of
corporeality that Kafka does not seem to have discussed or attained in his own life. In A Hunger
Artist, although the protagonists craft is unappreciated by society, his own body is widely
acknowledged as the explicit reflection and instrument of his art. Kafka, who aspires to
transform emotion into character for the purpose of his writing, consequently transforms his
body into an icon of peculiarity and punishment; the reverse image of his firm and resilient
father; the emblem of a dependent, childlike instinct that is repressed by conscious thought. In
these ways, Kafkas radical subjectivity and surrealistic world are reified as a suffering body
from which he is unable to escape. Therefore, Kafkas private understanding of his body is rather
Kafkaesque.
I dreamed today of a donkey that looked like a greyhound, it was very cautious in its movements. I
looked at it closely because I was aware of how unusual a phenomenon it was, but remember only
that its narrow human feet could not please me because of their length and uniformity. I offered it
a bunch of fresh, dark-green cypress leaves . . . it did not want it, just sniffed a little at it; but then,
when I left the cypress on a table, it devoured it so completely . . . Later there was talk that this
donkey had never yet gone on all fours but always held itself erect like a human being and showed
its silvery shining breast and its little belly. But actually that was not correct (Kafka, 94).
Kafka is the donkey. He looks like a greyhound; he is cautious in gesture and motion,
acutely aware of his potential impression on others; he judges features of his body as
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aesthetically unpleasant; he wants others to witness and understand his refusal of nourishment,
though he subsequently negates this active desire with involuntary, lonely indulgence. Other
people misrepresent him in their descriptions, wrongfully thinking that he behaves in a certain
way that would be contradictory to his nature. The promoters and recipients of these rumors do
not bother to observe him for any sort of corroboration, but rest on their assumptions. They
believe him to be a donkey that possesses a human realism when, in his surrealistic reality,
Kafka is something worse: a simulacrum of a greyhound struggling against the instincts of his
donkey constitution. In the attempt to make his body a conduit for the mind, his mind has made
Works Cited:
Fichter, Manfred. The Anorexia Nervosa of Franz Kafka. International Journal of Eating
Disorders 6.3 (1987): 367-377.
Robertson, Ritchie. Kafka: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.