Wiadomość ze Wschodu. Motywy orientalne w twórczości Franza Kafki

Abstract

Franz Kafka was a writer interested in the European intellectual vision of the East. As an intellectual of the German cultural circles he was familiar with contemporary types of reception of the Orient (literary, philosophical and religious aspects), both in positive and negative terms. In several of his works (The Great Wall of China, An Old Manuscript, Jackals and Arabs) he employs oriental motifs to express his own, autonomous worlds of imagination and thought. Although they relate to the Western European projections of the East, Kafka was generally more interested in outlining a situation of tension between the rational and impulsive factor in human consciousness, or expressing the sense of alienation felt by an individual towards a modern state. In addition to these factors, for Kafka the Orient was also a way to manifest his own responsibility for creating literature understood as a way of spiritual development.