Journal of Austrian Studies

Doreen Densky's book Literarische Fürsprache bei Franz Kafka: Rhetorik und Poetik is an excellent analysis of Franz Kafka's use of the advocate and advocacy (Fürsprache) to speak for and to various groups in his literary works, to his legal professor, and in everyday life. Kafka's life as an advocate started with his work as a trained lawyer working at an insurance firm, progressed through his speaking for Yiddish theater, and ended with his speaking for animals [End Page 135] near the end of his life. Denksy offers a detailed analysis of how Kafka diminished the role of the advocate over the course of his three novels, while leaving open the possibility of advocating for others through his own writing.

Densky begins by examining Kafka's advocacy work in his job as a lawyer. She notes that he would approve documents with his initials, rather than a signature, as was common (64). This returns in the protagonist Josef K.'s abbreviated last name in Der Proceß, which, as Densky argues, also makes him into a representative of the everyman (113). This removal of identity is even more pronounced in Das Schloß, in which the protagonist is reduced to a single letter: K.

Kafka also served as an advocate for Yitzhak Löwy and the Yiddish theater, both by giving a speech on the Yiddish language at a fundraiser and by helping Löwy and the troupe find financial assistance. Densky argues that Kafka acted as an editor of Jewish literature and poetry in his speech, but that it could only work, "weil er die Richter ausblendet, die überzeugt werden sollen und weil er sich von Löwy zum Redezeitpunkt abwendet?" (83–84). Densky argues that Kafka's speech, rather than simply advocacy for Löwy, advocates for the possibilities of what Yiddish could be, to speak for itself (92). This connection to speaking for the Yiddish theater and speaking for German-speaking Jews also appears in Kafka's animal stories, which are discussed later in the book.

In Kafka's animal stories, speaking for Jewish people and speaking for animals, who cannot speak for themselves, come together to include such animals as the giant mole, the ape turned human Red Peter, and Josefine the Mouse Singer. The story "The Village Schoolmaster" features two rival advocates whose writings on the state of research of the giant mole leads to a social dispute. Red Peter's former life as an animal is also tested in various perspectives, most prominently Red Peter's report to the academy. Josefine the Mouse Singer is portrayed in a similar way in his thoughts on "small literature" and is reflected in how it performs as Yiddish as a pure performance that does not have to speak for anyone, which connects with Kafka's advocacy for Yiddish and Yiddish theater back in 1912. Kafka himself became the advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Densky also examines how the ability of people to advocate for themselves and others diminishes and almost disappears throughout the course of Kafka's three novels: Der Verschollene, Der Proceß, and Das Schloß. [End Page 136] In Der Verschollene, Karl Roßmann's successful advocacy for the eponymous stoker of the opening chapter becomes a transition from justice to discipline in the uncle's advocacy for Karl (141). While Karl Roßmann disappears into a fantastical theatricality in Der Verschollene, Josef K. in Der Proceß is brought into the dreamlike theatricality of his own trial (109–10). As in Der Verschollene, Josef K. must play a role in the court system that entwines him ever deeper within it, but he is ultimately unsuccessful in advocating for himself.

Der Proceß opens with an act of Gegensprache rather than Fürsprache when Josef K. is marked as an alleged libeler in the speech of those in power, already diminishing his role as an advocate (109). In Der Proceß, Josef K.'s attack on the organization charging him inadvertently...