Kafkaesque Cinema

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by Angelos Koutsourakis

Type: Studies
Subject: Technique > Aesthetics
Keywords: Kafka, adaptation, sociology
Publishing date: 2024 (May 31, 2024)
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 320 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4744-9896-8

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Book Presentation:
Argues that Kafkaesque cinema is a critical category that can enable us to consider the interconnections between historical events, politics and aesthetics in films across the globe
• The first major investigation of the Kafkaesque in World Cinema
• Discusses case studies from Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Chile, mainland China, Cuba, the former Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Poland, USA, and the former USSR to deliver a crucial re-evaluation of the Kafkaesque as a critical category in film studies
• Demonstrates how the Kafkaesque cinematic aesthetic is rooted in Kafka’s critique of modernity, but it also extends beyond his work and his historical experiences
• Establishes an original critical methodology through the concept of the Kafkaesque to examine how global filmmakers draw on Kafka’s lessons to respond to the historical contradictions of modernity and late modernity
• Draws on a range of disciplines in the Humanities including film, literary, and theatre studies, critical theory, and history

For all its familiarity as a widely used term, “Kafkaesque cinema” remains an often-baffling concept that is poorly understood by film scholars. Taking a cue from Jorge Luis Borges’ point that Kafka has modified our conception of past and future artists, and André Bazin’s suggestion that literary concepts and styles can exceed authors and “novels from which they emanate”, this monograph proposes a comprehensive examination of Kafkaesque Cinema in order to understand it as part of a transnational cinematic tradition rooted in Kafka’s critique of modernity, which, however, extends beyond the Bohemian author’s work and his historical experiences.

Drawing on a range of disciplines in the Humanities including film, literary, and theatre studies, critical theory, and history, Kafkaesque Cinema will be the first full-length study of the subject and will be a useful resource for scholars and students interested in film theory, World Cinema, World Literature, and politics and representation.

About the Author:
Angelos Koutsourakis is Professor in Film and Cultural Studies at the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures, University of Leeds. He is the author of Rethinking Brechtian Film Theory and Cinema (2018), Politics as Form in Lars von Trier (2013) and the co-editor of Cinema of Crisis: Film and Contemporary Europe (2020), and The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos (2015).

Press Reviews:
In times when references to the Kafkaesque have become inflationary, Angelos Koutsourakis provides a much-needed re-examination of this term. The scope of his study, which covers global cinema from the 1920s to the present day, is hugely impressive, but crucially, this is not a straightforward reception history. By widening the definition of the Kafkaesque to include Kafka’s cinematic precursors as well as his successors, he deftly shows how this concept can be mobilised in a critical capacity, highlighting film’s pivotal role at the intersections of aesthetics, politics and history.
– Professor Carolin Duttlinger, The University of Oxford

Angelos K is guilty … of writing a standout book uncovering the widespread influence of the Kafkaesque on cinema. Remarkable in its insightful originality, Koutsourakis’s engaging analysis skillfully demonstrates how the Kafkaesque perpetually (re-)emerges in film history to critique the historical contradictions of modernity and its attendant crisis of liberalism. This compelling thesis is deftly　woven through a wide range of fascinating examples, as historically rich as they are geographically surprising. The refreshing and unique take on global political cinema found herein is thus a mental salve for a contemporary era of overwork and alienation – conditions which Kafka knew only too well. That is what makes this a must-read book, as it may be all that can save us from waking up to find we have suddenly metamorphosed into giant cockroaches.– Professor David Martin-Jones, The University of Glasgow

See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press

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