Programs arranged by the Kafka Society of America


Sketch of Franz Kafka by artist Friedrich Feigl


ATTENTION AUTHORS AND SCHOLARS: If you are interested in submitting papers, please review our editorial suggestions.


THE KAFKA SOCIETY CONVENTION PROGRAM Philadelphia, PA; December 2009 Tuesday, 29 December 2009 3:30–4:45 pm, Loews Philadelphia Kafka Anew: Life, Work, Translations Program arranged by the Kafka Society of America Presiding: Marie Luise Caputo-Mayr, Temple University

Matthew Powell Walsh University	Searching Kafka’s Diaries for the Untold Story
Marjorie Edna Rhine University of Wisconsin, Whitewater	Kafka’s Epistolary Project: Translating Libidinal Energies in “Letters to Felice”
Phillip Lundberg Bridgewater, NJ	“Essential Kafka”: Translating What’s Written In Between the Lines
Catriona MacLeod University of Pennsylvania	Kafka’s Amerika: Lost (and Found) in Translation

Wednesday, 30 December 2009 1:45–3:00 pm, Loews Philadelphia Kafka Anew: Multiple Perspectives Program arranged by the Kafka Society of America Presiding: Mark Harman, Elizabethtown College

Pamela S. Saur Lamar University	Conversational Interactions in Kafka and Pinter: A Linguistic Analysis
Shambhavi Prakash Rutgers University	Sonorous Intrusions: Translation of Sound in Kafka’s Der Process
Agnes Malinowska University of Chicago	The Cloudy Spot at the Center of the Father’s Concern: Kafka and Benjamin on Legal Violence and Narrative Postponement
Hugo Rios Rutgers University	Embracing Failure: Kafka on Film


ELECTION RESULTS FOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND VICE-PRESIDENT

Vice-president	Marjorie Rhine, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater

Executive Committee (New Members)	Mark Harman, Elizabethtown College Michael Levine, Rutgers University Marjorie Rhine, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater

These esteemed colleagues will start their term in 2009. We welcome all of them and are looking forward to collaborating with them.


THE KAFKA SOCIETY CONVENTION PROGRAM San Francisco, CA; December 2008 Saturday, 27 December 2008 3:30–4:45 pm, San Francisco Marriott, Foothill E Kafka, the Premier Practitioner of Labor Law in Central Europe Presiding: Michael Levine, Rutgers University

Ayad Rahmani Washington State University	In the Belly of the Ship: A Demonstration of Machine Power and Labor Relations
Paul North New York University	Everything Succumbs to Building
Megan M. Ewing Princeton University	From Burrow to Bureau: Ego Defense in Kafka’s “Der Bau”
Respondent: Iris Bruce, McMaster University

Sunday, 28 December 2008 12:00 noon –1:15 pm, San Francisco Marriott, Pacific Suite A Kafka, Brecht and Labor Presiding: Marie Luise Caputo-Mayr, Kafka Society of America

Olaf Berwald University of North Dakota	Marsyas Skin Grafts: Brecht/Kafka Palimpsests in Volker Braun’s Poetics of Survival
Jens Klenner Princeton University	Denken als Dienstleistung: Von Kopflangern und Handlangern in Brecht und Kafka
Nicola Behrmann	Food Comes First: Labor and Poverty in Kafka and Brecht
Respondent: Judith Ryan, Harvard University


ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE KAFKA SOCIETY OF AMERICA PRIZE FOR THE BEST ESSAY BY AN EMERGING SCHOLAR Among the many valuable scholarly submissions for the best essay prize, the Committee selected two outstanding essays and split the prize money of USD $2,000.00 between the two authors: Keith Leslie Johnson, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT Kafka: Toward an Ethic of the Creaturely Sorin Radu Cucu, SUNY, Buffalo, NY The Fantasy of the Invisible Master or the “Unnamable” in Kafka’s The Trial The prize was sponsored by Franz Muster, Panoramic Windows and Doors, with the assistance of Dr. Brigitta Blaha, Austrian Consul General in New York City and members of the Executive Committee of the Kafka Society of America. The winning essay was selected by a panel of experts. Kafka Executive Committee Sponsors: Stanley Corngold, Rolf J. Goebel, Clayton Koelb, Elizabeth Rajeck, Judith Ryan, Henry S. Sussman, Ruth V. Gross. Kafka Society Members and Other Private Sponsors: Jennifer Geddes, Michael G. Levine, Breon Mitchell, Mark Harman, John Pizer, John Zilcosky, Marjorie Rhine. We congratulate the winners and wish them a successful further career and thank again the sponsors of this prize. Note to the authors of the other prize submissions: You will be shortly contacted by the prize committee chair with further information.


THE KAFKA SOCIETY CONVENTION PROGRAM Chicago, IL; 27–30 December 2007 Thursday, 27 December 2007 3:20– 4:45 pm, Parlor C, Sheraton Chicago Hotels and Towers KAFKA NOW: Kafka and Popular Culture Presiding: Judith Ryan, Harvard University

Randy Laist University of Connecticut	Kafka 2.0: YouTube Metamorphoses
Marie Luise Caputo-Mayr Temple University	Their Take on Kafka Now: Recent Kafka Adaptations on the New York Stage
Henry S. Sussman SUNY Buffalo	Extraterrestrial Kafka

Friday, 28 December 2007 12 noon– 1:15 pm, Parlor C, Sheraton Chicago Hotels and Towers KAFKA NOW: Kafka and Recent Literature Presiding: Marie Luise Caputo-Mayr, Temple University

Jae Hee Chang UCLA	Kafka on the Shore and in Contemporary Japanese Literature
Elisa Martínez Salazar Universidad de Zaragoza	Kafka in Spain at the Beginning of the 21st Century
Mark Harman Elizabethtown College	Der Verschollene/The Missing Person Now: Revisiting Kafka’s First Novel
Mark Zisselsberger SUNY Binghamton	The Afterlife of Literature: W. G. Sebald and Kafka’s Hunter Gracchus
Substitutes: Denise Huber, Harvard University A Contrastive Study of Kafka and Pamuk Daniel Medin, Stanford University Poetic Belatedness in J. M. Coetzee’s At the Gate Betiel Wasihun, Yale University Franz Kafka’s America or Der Verschollene and Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore Roman Halfmann, University of Xiangtang, Hunan, China Kafka’s influence on the Far-Eastern Culture: The Riddles as Part of the Solution: Haruki Murakami and Franz Kafka


THE KAFKA SOCIETY CONVENTION PROGRAM Philadelphia, PA; December 2006 Thursday, 28 December 3:30–4:45 pm, 203-A Convention Center Kafka and His Factories: Industrial Kafka I: “The Real Thing” Presiding: Marie Luise Caputo-Mayr, Kafka Society of America

Benno Wagner Universität Siegen	Paris, 9-11-1911: Kafka's Poetics of Accident
Patrick Fortmann Tulane University	By Accident: Risks and Dangers of Kafka's Automobiles
Kata Gellen Princeton University	The Mass-Produced Word: Kafka's Newspapers
Back-up candidates: Tim Attanucci, Princeton University Auto-Omnibus: Kafka‘s Machine Traffic Barry Murnane, Freiburg/Breisgau Kafka's Dead Letter Offices: Bureaucracy, Technology and Magical Thinking

Saturday, 30 December 1:45–3:00 pm. Regency Ballroom C1, Loews Kafka and His Factories: Industrial Kafka II: Factories and Systems of the Mind Presiding: Henry S. Sussman, SUNY Buffalo

Marjorie Edna Rhine University of Wisconsin, Whitewater	Manufacturing Discontent: Mapping Traces of Industrial Space in Kafka's Haptic Narrative
Sorin Radu Cucu SUNY Buffalo	“Modern Times:” Kafka and the Mechanical Imagination
Martina Lüke University of Connecticut	The Human Machine/The Human as Machine in the Death Factory: Technology as Mirror of Modernity in Kafka's “In Penal Colony”
Rolf J. Goebel University of Alabama, Huntsville	Industrial Work as Urban Phantasmagoria: A Note on Benjamin and Kafka
Back-up candidates: Allen Shelton , Buffalo State College Capital of the Wide Green Swamps Lawrence Nannery, Saint Francis College, Brooklyn Kafka and His Factories


THE KAFKA SOCIETY CONVENTION PROGRAM Washington, D.C.; 29–30 December 2005 Thursday, 29 December 1:45–3:00 pm, Georgetown East, Washington Hilton Kafka and the Body Politic I: Contemporary Discourses Presiding: Marie Luise Caputo-Mayr, Kafka Society of America

Patrick Forman Harvard University	"Aus mir geschnittenes Fleisch:" The Body Politics of Kafka Literature
Eva B. Revesz Scripps College	The Human Beast: Kafka’s Concentrationary Universe
David Suchoff Colby College	Kafka’s Jewish Politics: Zionism, Goethe and the Hidden Openness of Tradition
Arnd Wedemayer Princeton University	"Diesseitswunder:" Franz Kafka as Political Saint
Respondent: Judith L. Ryan, Harvard University

Friday, 30 December 12:00 noon –1:15 pm, Conservatory, Washington Hilton Kafka and the Body Politic I: Contemporary Discourses Presiding: Henry Sussman, State University of New York, Buffalo

Esther Kirsten Bauer University of Wisconsin, Stephen's Point	Lost Between Power and Desire: Franz Kafka’s Der Verschollene
Olaf Berwald University of Tennessee, Knoxville	Polis, Solitude, and Solidarity: Soundings of Kafka in Weiss and Canetti
Lucian Ghita Yale University	Topographical Assemblages and Reconfigurations: The Politics of Space in Kafka’s The Trial
Michael G. Levine New York University	Freedom of Speech: The Space of the Mouth in the Kafka Corpus
Respondent: Iris Bruce, McMaster University


THE KAFKA SOCIETY CONVENTION PROGRAM Philadelphia, PA; 29–30 December, 2004 Wednesday, 29 December 10:15-11:30 am, Washington B, Loews Hotel Kafka and Music: The Theme of Music in Kafka’s Texts Presiding: Marie Luise Caputo-Mayr, Kafka Society of America

Walter H. Sokel	Josephine’s Songs and the Role of Music in Kafka
Stanley Corngold	Kafka and the Several Senses of Music
Iris Bruce	“Musikwissenschaft:” Kafka’s Sounds of Silence
John Hamilton	“Ist das Spiel vielleicht unangenehm?:” Musical Disturbances and Acoustic Space in Kafka

Thursday, 30 December 12:00 noon-1:15 pm, Regency Ballroom C2, Loews Hotel Kafka and Music: Musical Pieces Inspired by Kafka Presiding: Judith Ryan, Harvard University

Ruth Gross	Finding the Right Key for Kafka’s "Castle:" André LaPorte’s Opera, “Das Schloss”
Martha Hyde	Paradoxical Barriers and Morphing Forms: Gyorgy Kurtag's "Kafka-Fragments: op. 24"
Francien Markx	Recomposing Kafka: Ernst Krenek’s "Sechs Motetten nach Worten nach Franz Kafka"
David Fulmer	Breaking Boundaries: Pozzi Escot’s Chamber Music inspired by "The Metamorphosis"


THE KAFKA SOCIETY CONVENTION PROGRAM San Diego, CA; 27–29 December, 2003 Saturday, 27 December 5:15-6:30 pm, Coronado, San Diego Marriott Hotel Global Kafka I Program arranged by the Kafka Society of America Presiding: Marie Luise Caputo-Mayr, Kafka Society of America

Anne E. Jamison Princeton University	Representations of Czech Identity in Kafka: Problems of Minor Literature
Marjorie Edna Rhine University of Wisconsin, Whitewater	Satanic Verses and Kafka’s Curse: Kafkan Echoes in Stories of Mutable Postcolonial Identites
Joseph Reuben Metz University of Utah	Kafka Goes Global: International Connections and National Identities in Kafka's Der Verschollene
Rainer Rumold Northwestern University	Kafka's Nomad Images, from Multilingual Borderland to Global Experience

Monday, 29 December 7:15-8:30 pm, Torrey 2, San Diego Marriott Hotel Global Kafka II Program arranged by the Kafka Society of America Presiding: Janet A. Ward, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Patrick J. O’Neill Queens University	Global Kafka: Translations, Readers, Texts
Julius M. Herz Temple University	Kafka and the Slavic World
Marie Luise Caputo-Mayr Temple University	Kafka's Reception in the Romance Language World
Ruiqi Ma University of California, Riverside	“Kafka’s Influence on Post-Mao Chinese Writers

The Kafka Society of America organizes and sponsors scholarly presentations on Kafka-related topics at the Modern Language Association convention, held annually in December. Suggestions for future MLA-Kafka sessions are welcome.

We have traditionally asked presenters at our MLA-Kafka sessions to reserve their papers for publication in the Journal of the Kafka Society of America. We are offering a forum for Kafka debate at the MLA and our Journal should reflect this effort. Your presentation should be original and not have been previously published.

Papers can be submitted in either English or German. We would like to ask our contributing scholars to prepare and edit their papers with the utmost care to avoid the burden of prolonged editing. We ask for this professional courtesy in order to minimize, wherever possible, editorial work. Please, follow the most recent MLA style manual; “Endnotes” (Notes) and Works Cited are required. Also, consult recent numbers of the PMLA or our Journal. We ask you in particular to double-check all endnotes, quotations and citations for accuracy. We also urge you to make use of collegial editorial help, which always proves invaluable.

Submit your article via email attachment to the editors mentioned below and make sure to include your complete work and home addresses, phone, fax and email information. Your documents should be Microsoft Word 97-compatible.

In addition, print out two hard copies of your document, checking that both correspond, and burn a PC-formatted CD containing the Microsoft Word 97-compatible file. Mail all of these materials to:
Marie Luise Caputo-Mayr
160 East 65th St., # 2C
New York, NY 10065
Email:

In addition to the electronic submission to the editors, please send one additional hard copy to each of the following: Judith Ryan, German Department, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (); Julius M. Herz, 3795 Route 212, Riegelsville, PA 18077 (); Marjorie Rhine, University of Wisconsin, Department of Foreign Languages, Whitewater, WI 53190 (); Michael Levine, German Department, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 (); Iris Bruce, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, L8S 4M2 (); and Mark Harman, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA 17022 ().

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