Nesrozumitelnost světa a nevymezitelnost viny: kafkovské poznámky

Abstract

The paper focuses on the functions of detailed analyses and pedantic explanations of situations and events provided by Kafka’s characters. Taken together, they create the impression of a solid orientation within the system. Nevertheless, the more elaborate and compact they are, the more they make it clear that the system, by its very nature, resists understanding. The incomprehensibility of the world, amplified by explanations, implies the inextricability of guilt (in analogy to Quine’s inextricability of meaning): it is impossible to identify those elements of the protagonist’s biography which constitute his guilt and separate them from the “innocent” rest.he article overviews the evolution of The Art of Translation by Jiří Levý starting with the genesis of the original Czech version, which can be considered the culmination of the author’s academic career. The first foreign languages the book was translated into were German and Russian. Since the Czech original was strongly imbedded in the Czech culture and literature, the translation required adaptations to the target cultures. The paper aims to trace the translation process of Levý’s publication with the main focus on its German version. Together with the Czech original, this version served as the basis for the second Czech edition. the final part of the article focuses on the international reception of Levý’s masterpiece and introduces its recent translations into foreign languages.

Keywords

• kafka
• balzac
• beckett
• explanation versus understanding
• kafkaesque situation
• guilt in kafka’s world