"Neither describable nor bearable"

H.D., Berry, Offill, Dugan, Edson, Bourgeois

New Class: Kafka’s Insights for the 21st Century

This 4-week course, Thursdays, 7-8:30 PM ET via Zoom, April 17, 24, May 1, May 8, will be about the life and writing of Franz Kafka (1883-1924). We will read selections of his work to more fully understand Kafka’s world, his writing, his thinking, and what we can learn from his fiction for our own writing. We will focus on the most important years of his life and the culture of Prague during 1910-1915. We will examine his family, his work, psychological development, engagement to Felice Bauer, and his illness.

Goals:

• Understanding of essential facts about Kafka’s writing life and writing

• Understanding and application of the psychological dimension of his writing to life now

• Greater appreciation for Kafka’s contribution to literature

• To gain familiarity with Franz Kafka’s daily life, language, and milieu in fin-de-siècle Prague

• Understanding the reasons his writing might feel prophetic

Sign up at: https://www.seansingerpoetry.com/join-book-club

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About Sean Singer

Sean Singer Poetry

Sean Singer Editorial Services

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The paid-subscriber version of The Sharpener includes weekly installments of craft pieces, approaches to writing problems, topics in contemporary publishing for writers, and biographical features on poets I consider important.

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H.D.:

I had expected to meet the rather remote, detached, and much abused scientist, but I found the artist. Sigmund Freud said, “Ah, you tell this all so beautifully.”

Emily Berry:

Jenny Offill:

Alan Dugan:

Russell Edson:

Louise Bourgeois:

Charles Mingus, “All The Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud’s Wife Was Your Mother,” rec. October 20, 1960:

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