Franz Kafka (1883-1924) is one of the most famous writers that lived in Prague, that has become one of the most significant literary figures worldwide. The writers unusual life story and a unique writing style give his work peculiar and exceptional character that is underlined by the existence of the Franz Kafka Museum in the Lesser Town, Prague. Come and visit the museum and get to know the imaginary and mysterious world of an extraordinary man.
Why Franz Kafka’s work was almost never published
According to the historical reports we have at our disposal, Kafka did not want to be a well-known person or a writer in the true sense of the word. He did not want his manuscripts to be preserved, and he did not want them to be published. Actually, he wished the very opposite and wrote mainly just for himself to express his thoughts. It was his friend Max Brod that published the manuscripts that Franz Kafka gave him with a specific task to burn them. The whole world can be thankful he did not burn them and because of that, we can now immerse ourselves in the the strange worlds of his books like The Trial, the surrealist The Castle and other extraordinary works.
Exhibition of K. Franz Kafka & Prague
The Exhibition of K. Franz Kafka & Prague is a long-standing exhibition of the museum that has been running since 2005, when it first opened. Investigating Kafka’s life or work from a purely biographical or chronological approach would be inadequate and perhaps misleading. That is why the museum seeks to capture two major verticals in which it tries to presents the life and work of the writer Franz Kafka from his perspective.
In the first part, the museum offers a view of Prague from Kafka’s perspective from the detailed descriptions found in his works. The exhibition tries to encapture how Kafka himself viewed Prague, to simulate his feelings and show the major conflicts of his life in Prague. We can see Kafka’s interpretation of space and time that are cut out of ordinary perception. The experience is gradually deformed into deepening paranoia and surrealistic events.
Though the stories are set in Prague, it is never explicitly stated throughout the Kafka exhibition. This is what the second part of the exhibition focuses on. Imaginary topography is the way in which Kafka describes the city of Prague in most cases without stating any other names or descriptions of the places. It’s not even about whether the writer is talking about a castle, a cathedral, or a school. It really does not matter what the individual buildings and places represent, but they act as allegorical sites and topological metaphors. There has been a lot of effort to prove that Prague is always present in Franz Kafka’s works. But is that really the case?. Come visit this great Exhibition of K – Franz Kafka & Prague and be the judge of where the Transformation can go.
Tours can be booked online, the Museum is open every day from 10 AM to 6 PM, entrance fee is CZK 200, for children CZK 120, family ticket is CZK 540. Dive into Mr. K.
