CFP Kafka's Fiction (Panel) (9/30/2025; NeMLA 2026 Pittsburgh/hybrid)

Kafka's Fiction (Panel)

Primary Area / Secondary Area
Comparative Literature / German

Modality
Hybrid: The session will be held in-person but a few remote presentations may be included.

Chair(s)
Adam Hartman-Whitfield (Binghamton University, SUNY)

Direct link for submissions: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21815

Abstract

Marking a century since the posthumous publication of The Castle in 1926, this panel aims to explore the enduring currency of Franz Kafka's fiction. His work feels uncanny today: we read of protagonists trapped in impossibly complex systems, unnavigable physical and mental spaces, and enigmatic configurations of law and justice occasioning unusual arrests and forced disappearances, all of which are described in equal parts cruelty and black humor—stories, and perhaps a tone, that resonate now more than ever. Borges once reflected that Kafka's work "modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future" (Kafka and His Precursors). We want to consider, in essence, what Kafka might mean in 2026.

In light of this year’s theme of (re)generation, we ask: what might we generate in a (re)turn to Kafka at this particular moment? While any engagement with Kafka's work and its afterlives are welcome additions to this panel, we are especially interested in approaches that extend beyond disciplinary boundaries. Some potential generative approaches could include:

• Close and/or theoretical readings of Kafka's work
• Adaptations of Kafka's work into other media
• Translating Kafka's work
• Teaching Kafka's stories
• Kafka as a mode of reading the present

Description

Marking a century since the posthumous publication of The Castle in 1926, this panel aims to explore the enduring currency of Franz Kafka's fiction. We want to consider what Kafka might mean in 2026—a particularly Kafkaesque moment—from a variety of inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives.