China and the West

Tiergeschichten von Franz Kafka.
Kafka, Franz. Tiergeschichten : Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande (1907), Blumfeld : ein älterer Junggeselle (1915), Die Verwandlung (1915), Der Jäger Gracchus (1916), Schakale und Araber (1917), Der neue Advokat (1917), Der Landarzt (1917), Ein altes Blatt (1917), Eine Kreuzung (1917), Eine kleine Fabel (1920), Forschungen eines Hundes (1922), Der Bau (1924), Josephine die Sängerin (1924).
Quellen : Pu, Songling. Liao zhai zhi yi. = Wilhelm, Richard. Chinesische Volksmärchen [ID D1585] und Buber, Martin. Chinesische Geister- und Liebesgeschichten [ID D3083].

Zhou Jianming : Kafka’s works are pervaded by fairytale elements : animals, metamorphosis of humans into animals, the repeal of natural laws, the isolation of the hero. Kafka uses fairytale elements and motifs in order to destroy the tradition, to turn the world around, and to bring the reader to know a new reality. Pu Songling and Kafka habe an interest in the same thing with respect to their ainimal descriptions – to produce and characterize the heart of the human. However they do this on different levels : Kafka wishes to expose not only the inner process of the human, but also the ‘self’, the instinctive of the human ; the animal is not only an artistic means, but also an object of its portrayal. Pu Songling, on the other hand, aims to characterize the various types of humans, the individuals with typical characteristics, in which the animal functions more as a vehicule. Kafka does not view the human as a inseperable entity, but rather penetrates into the heart of the human, and shows its components. For Pu Songling, the human is a self-contained entity which cannot be seperated, reduced or dismantled into components. Both Pu Songling and Kafka know how to create, through their animal figures, an artistic world which is parallel to the human world, in order to portray clearly the respective time-specific problems of their societies. Their animals are free and unspoiled living beings in nature ; they act freely and basically. That creates a contrast to humans who in verious ways have lost their nature and therefore act affectedly. Pu Songling and Kafka’s yearning for free nature and their criticism of the respective society lie in their animal stories.