Kafka & Amerika

[David Bergdahl]

To point out the "k" spelling of Kafka's German is as relevant as
remarking that his name means "crow" in Czech.  Amerika is spelled with
a K in German: on my bookshelf there's a volume titled Amerikakunde
(from my Fulbright tour).. it just means Americanistics or
America-Studies, nothing political intended.  The spelled with a K in
the 60s DOES politicize the name by the trope German=fascist but that
has nothing to do with Kafka.  (The first paragraph of his novel is a
shocker for Americans: the Statue of Liberty carries, not a torch, but a
sword, like Bavaria at the Oktoberfest)

-- db
____________________________________________________________________
David Bergdahl          http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~bergdahl
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