LITERARY ECHOES: FRANZ KAFKA AND HEINRICH VON KLEIST

Ever since 1916, when a reviewer sensed Kleistian qualities in Kafka's Der Heizer, critics have been trying to define the elusive affinity between Kleist and Kafka. This study explores the question from psychological, stylistic and thematic perspectives.; A juxtaposition of language and imagery in their autobiographical writings suggests that comparable conflicts underlie the intellectual and literary quest of both writers. Although Kafka envied Kleist's single-mindedness, Kleist's letters indicate that his relationship to action was as problematic as Kafka's. The Kafka-likeness of the inner struggles of the young Kleist emerges whenever Kleist foresees the consequences of his failure to create a "Lebensplan".; A syntactic analysis of passages from Michael Kohlhaas, Die Verwandlung and Der Verschollene indicates that both writers create tension by inserting circumstantial details which delay the revelation of the verb. A series of logical connectives ensures the inevitability of the moment when the character finally acts (Kleist) or reaches a decision (Kafka). The syntactic parallels must be seen in the context of the dramatic prose style of both writers. Pursuing the observations of recent studies of Kafka's theatrical prose, I show through a close reading of scenes from Michael Kohlhaas and Der Verschollene that both writers use props and gestures to enact events rather than simply narrate them. Whereas Kleist generally stages confrontations from an external perspective, Kafka creates suspense by exploiting the discrepancy between the hero's interpretation of events and the fate, often signalled by the gestures of his antagonists, which awaits him.; Key elements in the intellectual relationship between Kleist and Kafka are the skepticism of both writers about the reliability of perception and their ambivalence about religious belief. While Kleist's anxiety about perception, which was exacerbated by his encounter with Kantian philosophy, can be detected on the level of his plots and the continual "Versehen" of his characters, Kafka's skepticism finds structural expression in the restricted perspective of his novels. A comparison of Kleist's Das Erdbeben in Chili and Der Zweikampf with Kafka's Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer reveals that the contradictory positions adopted by the narrators and the inconclusiveness of the endings reflect a tension between skepticism and belief which neither writer can resolve for himself or for his reader. The metaphysical tension in Kleist's anecdotes and novellas anticipates Kafka's writings and represents an essential element in Kleist's modernity.