| In 1951 Borges published a short essay entitled “Kafka and His Precursors” where he writes: “The word ‘precursor’ is indispensable to the vocabulary of criticism, but one must try to purify it from any connotation of polemic or rivalry. The fact is that each writer creates his precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.” In this studio-seminar we will read many of Kafka’s works as well as several by his ‘precursors’ including parts of The Kabbalah, Marcus Aurelius, Thomas Mann, Bruno Schulz, Clarice Lispector, Borges, Roberto Calasso and others. We will also be considering visual art, including Bosch, Kandinsky, the Surrealists, and others. |