A psychoanalytic view on the constitution of the subject in the work of Franz Kafka

Abstract

The so-called Thirty Years War refers to a series of wars in Europe in the seventeenth century fueled by religious, territorial and dynastic rivalries which brought economic and demographic difficulties to that region and their people. In Bohemia, as in other parts of Europe, there was a real desertification of rural areas in this period, causing Jews to migrate from neighboring countries due to their recognized experience in the development of businesses in general. Jewish immigrants spoke a “German Jewish” language, which could be described as German with several expressions in Yiddish and, once a new statute for the Jews was created in the late nineteenth century, they moved to urban centers where they sought assimilation through socio-cultural ambience at big cities. The story of Franz Kafka’s family is the story of most Jewish families who settled there at that time. Josef Kafka, who was the first to adopt this surname, which means “jackdaw” in Czech, married in 1802 and one of his sons, Jacob Kafka, became the father of Hermann Kafka. Hermann settled down with few financial resources, and shortly after marrying Julie Löwy in 1882 he opened a fabric store that thrived thanks to his hard dedication to work. Shortly after, Hermann successfully expanded his business. Hermann established himself thanks to his commitment, sacrifice and perseverance. Franz was the first child born of this marriage, in Prague, in 1883. Two more boys who died young and three daughters who died later during the Nazi holocaust were also born of this marriage. Hermann is described as an energetic man with strong temperament and Julie as a sweet and serene woman, always willing to mitigate her husband’s strong temperament. In addition to Yiddish, Hermann’s children spoke German, which was his family’s native tongue in South Bohemia. Besides German and Yiddish, Franz also spoke Czech in an attempt to broaden his local communication. Based on the fact that they were Jews and having the habit of speaking German, Franz and his family were seen as the minority of minorities, making it difficult for Franz to connect with other inhabitants of Prague. In this context, Franz was exposed to the nationalistic feelings of Prague residents which, when combined with anti-Semitic prejudices, eventually led to street demonstrations against the Jews. Curiously, although he belonged to a family of Jews, Franz did not attend to the synagogue because he did not see himself to be sufficiently involved in the Jewish religion.1,2