Irony’s Antics: Walser, Kafka, Roth, and the German Comic Tradition

270 Pages·2014·1.042 MB·English

by  Erica Weitzman

Irony’s Antics

Irony’s Antics
Walser, Kafka, Roth, and the
German Comic Tradition

Erica Weitzman
northwestern university press
evanston, illinois
“Usually I first put on a prose piece jacket,” by Robert Walser and translated by
Susan Bernofsky, is reproduced from The Microscripts, copyright © Suhrkamp
Verlag Zurich and Frankfurt am Main 1985. Reprinted by permission of New
Directions Publishing Corp.
Northwestern University Press
www.nupress.northwestern.edu
Copyright © 2015 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2015.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weitzman, Erica, author.
Irony’s antics : Walser, Kafka, Roth, and the German comic tradition / Erica
Weitzman.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8101-2983-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. German literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Walser,
Robert, 1878–1956—Criticism and interpretation. 3. Kafka, Franz, 1883–
1924—Criticism and interpretation. 4. Roth, Joseph, 1894–1939—Criticism
and interpretation. 5. Irony in literature. 6. Comic, The, in literature. I. Title.
PT405.W35316 2014
830.9180904—dc23
2014005099
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction
The Comic Ethos 3
Chapter One
Senses of Humor: The Origins of Comic Irony 21
Chapter Two
The Playgrounds of Literature: Robert Walser 57
Chapter Three
Slap Happy: Comic Kafka 97
Chapter Four
Bearing Wit to History: Joseph Roth 145
Conclusion
Last Laughs 185
Notes 189
Works Cited 229
Index 247

Acknowledgments
It is an irony of authorship that only the person whose name is printed on a
book’s cover truly knows how much others have had a hand in its making.
I would first of all like to thank all those in the Departments of Compara-
tive Literature and German at New York University whose guidance and
encouragement has made this work possible. I am particularly indebted to
Anselm Haverkamp for being an unfailing source of support, inspiration, and
productive challenges over the years, and to Avital Ronell for her generosity
as much as for her setting the example of a scholarship as rigorous as it is
tonic. Paul Fleming not only provided invaluable suggestions throughout the
writing of this book, but also helped with his own research to lay its foun-
dations. Eckart Goebel and Jacques Lezra lent their talent, dedication, and
unflagging enthusiasm to the project during its progress. I would also like
to extend my thanks to Emily Apter, Jay Bernstein, Eliot Borenstein, Simon
Critchley, Patrick Deer, Peter Goodrich, Werner Hamacher, John Hamilton,
Martin Harries, Mikhail Iampolski, Jacques le Rider, Christoph Menke, Ger-
hard Neumann, Nancy Ruttenburg, Mark Sanders, Richard Sieburth, Elke
Siegel, and Joseph Vogl, all of whom offered ideas, assistance, and advice at
crucial junctures. Albrecht Koschorke and Juliane Vogel at the Universität
Konstanz helped to provide a home base and a community of interlocutors
during the final phases of this book’s preparation.
The writing of this book was facilitated by a stipend from the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation), which allowed me
to spend three years as a doctoral fellow with the Graduiertenkolleg “Leb-
ensformen und Lebenswissen” at the Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt
(Oder) and the Universität Potsdam.
An especial debt of gratitude is owed to Henry Carrigan at Northwestern
University Press for believing in this project from its early stages, and to
Nathan MacBrien for seeing it through to its completion. I am also obliged
to the two anonymous readers of the manuscript for their attentive readings
and comments.
A section of chapter 3 of this book has appeared in modified form under the
title “Almost Necessary: Kafka’s Kantian Situation Comedy,” MLN 126, no.
3 (April 2011). A section of chapter 4 has been published in modified form in
German translation under the title “Momentausnahmen: Joseph Roths ‘doku-
mentarische Komik,’ ” in Joseph Roth als Stilist: Annäherung durch Theorie
und Übersetzung (Heidelberg: Winter 2013), edited by Nora Hoffmann and
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Natalia Shchyhlevska of Johannes Guttenberg-Universität Mainz, who also
organized the corresponding workshop. This book has additionally benefited
from my being able to present other sections at conferences at the Katho-
lieke Universiteit Leuven, the University of Virginia, and the City University
of New York. My thanks also go to Susan Bernofsky and the editors at New
Directions for allowing me to republish her translation of Walser’s microscript
“Usually I first put on a prose piece jacket,” a feat of poetic transmogrification
which I would not gladly have dared to attempt to outdo.
Finally, this book could never have been written without the care and
support of my friends and colleagues, both within and outside the academy.
I particularly would like to thank Yael Almog, Sage Anderson, Magali Armil-
las-Tiseyra, David Auerbach, Siarhei Biareishyk, Elizabeth Bonapfel, Jeffrey
Champlin, Amy Cimini, Michael Gallope, Micaela Kramer, Julia Ng, Katha-
rina Piechocki, William Rauscher, Suzanne Scala, Chadwick Smith, Phillip
Usher, Alejandra Uslenghi, and my colleagues in “Lebensformen und Leb-
enswissen” for having all amply furnished the proof, many times over, that
friendship is indeed as fun as it is serious. And most of all, I want to thank
Thomas Dikant—for being almost always willing to read my drafts, for being
there, and for helping me to laugh.
Abbreviations
Works cited frequently in the text and notes are referred to using the follow-
ing abbreviations:
A Hegel, G. W. F. Hegel’s Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art, vols.
1 and 2. Translated by T. M. Knox. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1975.
AI Hegel, G. W. F. Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik I. Edited by Eva
Moldenhauer and Karl Markus Michel. Frankfurt am Main:
Suhrkamp, 1970.
AII Hegel, G. W. F. Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik II. Edited by Eva
Moldenhauer and Karl Markus Michel. Frankfurt am Main:
Suhrkamp, 1970.
AIII Hegel, G. W. F. Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik III. Edited by
Eva Moldenhauer and Karl Markus Michel. Frankfurt am Main:
Suhrkamp, 1970.
AB1 Walser, Robert. Aus dem Bleistiftgebiet, vol. 1: Mikrogramme aus
den Jahren 1924–1925. Edited by Bernhard Echte and Werner
Morlang. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1985.
ANTH Kant, Immanuel. Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View.
Translated by Robert B. Louden. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge
University Press, 2006; Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht.
Hamburg: Meiner, 2000.
CI Kierkegaard, Søren. The Concept of Irony, with Continual
Reference to Socrates. Translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna
H. Hong. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989.
CPJ Kant, Immanuel. Critique of the Power of Judgment. Translated
by Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge
University Press; Kritik der Urteilskraft. Hamburg: Meiner, 2006.
CPR Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Translated by J. M. D.
Meiklejohn. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 1990; Kritik der reinen
Vernunft. Hamburg: Meiner, 1998.
DL Kafka, Franz. Drucke zu Lebzeiten. In Kritische Ausgabe, edited
by Wolf Kittler, Hans-Gerd Koch, and Gerhard Neumann.
Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 2002.
ix