Kafkas Blues: Figurations of Racial Blackness in the Construction of an Aesthetic [Paperback]

Kafka's Bluesproves the startling thesis that many of Kafka's major works engage in a coherent, sustained meditation on racial transformation from white European into what Kafka refers to as the "Negro" (a term he used in English). Indeed, this book demonstrates that cultural assimilation and bodily transformation in Kafka's work are impossible without passage through a state of being "Negro." Kafka represents this passage in various ways—from reflections on New World slavery and black music to evolutionary theory, biblical allusion, and aesthetic primitivism—each grounded in a concept of writing that is linked to the perceived congenital musicality of the "Negro," and which is bound to his wider conception of aesthetic production. Mark Christian Thompson offers new close readings of canonical texts and undervalued letters and diary entries set in the context of the afterlife of New World slavery and in Czech and German popular culture.

Kafka's Blues proves the startling thesis that many of Kafka's major works engage in a coherent, sustained meditation on racial transformation from white European into what Kafka refers to as the "Negro" (a term he used in English).

MARK CHRISTIAN THOMPSON is an associate professor of English at Johns Hopkins University.

Introduction
Part I
Chapter One: Becoming Negro
Chapter Two: Being Negro
Chapter Three: Beyond Negro
Part II
Chapter Four: Negro's Machine
Chapter Five: Negro's Manumission
Chapter Six: Negro's Martyrdom
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography