Translation of Auf der Galerie - What became of my dreams

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    This is a machine translation of: Kafkas Auf der Galerie: Bild der Ausweglosigkeit auch der Kafka-Forschung? in: Doitsu Bungaku 71, 1983, pp. 118-127.

The text:

Franz Kafka, Up in the Gallery (1917)
If some frail, consumptive equestrienne were to be driven round and round in the ring on a swaying horse in front of a tireless audience by the whip-wielding, merciless boss for months without interruption, whirling on the horse, throwing kisses, swaying at the waist, and if this play were to continue into the ever-widening grey future to the never-ending roar of the orchestra and the fans, accompanied by the fading and re-swelling applause of the hands that are actually steam hammers - then perhaps a young gallery visitor would hurry down the long staircase through all the tiers, rush into the ring, shout - Stop! through the fanfares of the ever-matching orchestra.
But since it is not so, a beautiful lady, white and red, flies in between the curtains that the proud men in liveries open before her; the director, devoutly seeking her eyes, breathes towards her in an animal posture; lifts her precautiously on the apple-white horse, as if she were his beloved granddaughter about to go for a dangerous ride; cannot make up his mind to give the whip signal; finally, in self-conquest, gives it with a bang; runs along beside the horse with his mouth open; follows the rider's jumps with a sharp eye; can hardly comprehend her artistry; tries to warn with English exclamations; angrily admonishes the tyre-holding grooms to the most scrupulous attentiveness; before the great salto mortale, implores the orchestra with raised hands to be silent; finally, lifts the girl from the trembling horse, kisses her on both cheeks and does not consider any homage from the audience to be sufficient; while she herself, supported by him, high on her toes, blown by the dust, with outstretched arms, her little head leaning back, wants to share her happiness with the whole circus - since this is so, the visitor to the gallery puts his face on the parapet and, sinking into the final march as in a heavy dream, weeps without knowing it.
Kafka's Up in the Gallery: Image of Hopelessness also of the Kafka Research?
in: Doitsu Bungaku 71, 1983, pp. 118-127
Gerhard SCHEPERS

Kafka's short prose piece Auf der Galerie is one of his most frequently interpreted works. If one looks at the results of research so far, however, the balance in the Kafka Year does not appear to be very encouraging. Friedrich Nemec criticises the "variety of scholarly approaches" as "merely following manifest intentions"1) and stresses that the "judgements on Kafka's parables of hopelessness" themselves offer "a picture of hopelessness".2) Gerhard Neumann, on the other hand, in his Kafka-Handbuch, simply juxtaposes the various, often completely disparate interpretations, as if their sum could be equated with the result of research to date.3) The problem addressed here is fundamental to Kafka studies. The problem addressed here is of fundamental importance for the scholarly study of Kafka. Therefore, the following considerations should not only be relevant to the interpretation of the sketch Auf der Galerie.

1
First of all, it has to be said that - at least as far as Auf der Galerie is concerned - the situation of Kafka scholarship is not quite as hopeless as Nemec's harsh criticism and Neumann's uncritical positivism seem to suggest. Many interpretations, especially early and didactically oriented ones, are undoubtedly unconvincing or even completely wrong.4) Often, however, Nemec's criticism does not do justice to the interpretations at all, especially in the case of Jörgen Kobs and Peter U. Beicken.5)The latter had already convincingly drawn a line of development that can certainly be seen as a path of research towards a deeper understanding of the play. According to Beicken, the common interpretation is as follows: "The first, the conditional sentence, presents reality as it really is, but as it can only be grasped cognitively as an idea, while what is stated in the realis captures the beautiful world of appearance, of illusion, of the lie that deceives. "6) In Hartmut Binder and also in Nemec, this interpretation appears in a modified form as the opposition of truth and reality,7) in Herbert Kraft as "unreal reality" and "reality of appearance".8) These terms indicate the difficulties that arise when one wants to describe what is presented in the two sentences as two separate objective realities. Moreover, in view of the numerous distortions and exaggerations in the first part ("frail, consumptive equestrienne", "driven in circles for months without interruption by the . . . merciless boss", "into the ever-widening grey future")9) it hardly seems possible to describe it as a "true" or "real" reality,10) quite apart from the fact that it is an unreal conditional sentence.
Even more important, however, as Beicken rightly points out, is the "perspectivist relationship of the depicted to the gallery visitor", first emphasised by Klaus-Peter Philippi.11) According to Philippi, the title already indicates that it is not primarily about what happens in the ring, but about what happens "in the gallery", what happens there in the visitor.12) It is not two different events that are described, but two different ways of seeing the same event.13) Kobs has taken up this approach.14) In my opinion, his careful analysis is the most convincing attempt to interpret the play so far. Nevertheless, several questions remain unanswered. In particular, it seems to me that the problem of an appropriate characterisation and attribution of the views presented in the two parts has not been solved. Kobs describes the first part as "pure reflection", while in the second part he speaks first of "observation" and then, with reference to the reaction of the gallery visitor at the end, of "pure expression".15) However, this division into three parts does not correspond to the symmetry of the text. Kobs lacks a plausible explanation as to why the "third form of the way of seeing", which "only appears briefly" at the end, should be placed "on an equal footing with the other two".16) Moreover, the "pure expression" can hardly be described as a "way of seeing", just as little as the reaction of the gallery visitor in the first sentence, which would also have to be distinguished separately in view of the clearly structured structure of the text.
The problem here, then, is that the term 'way of seeing' is not sufficient to capture all aspects of what is being depicted. The two sentences obviously deal with two fundamental ways of behaving or relating to reality, of which the 'way of seeing' is only one aspect, which is particularly emphasised here. If this is true, we can further conclude that these two possibilities should also apply to the interpreter's relationship to his text. That this is indeed the case is made particularly clear by Kobs in his interpretation, as will be shown below. Most other interpretations also confirm this fact, especially in the way they characterise the two parts and thereby judge the second more or less negatively. This will be discussed first, and at the same time an attempt will be made to determine the attitude of the gallery visitor in the two sentences and its connection with the attitude of the interpreter or reader.
The two sentences obviously deal with two fundamental ways of behaving or relating to reality, of which the 'way of seeing' is only one aspect, which is particularly emphasised here. If this is true, we can further conclude that these two possibilities should also apply to the interpreter's relationship to his text. That this is indeed the case is made particularly clear by Kobs in his interpretation, as will be shown below. Most other interpretations also confirm this fact, especially in the way they characterise the two parts and thereby judge the second more or less negatively. This will be discussed first, and at the same time an attempt will be made to determine the attitude of the gallery visitor in the two sentences and its connection with the attitude of the interpreter or reader.

2
The first part does not seem to present any major difficulties. It deals with a hypothetical case, with the question of what conditions must be fulfilled for human action to be possible.17) It is not about concrete events and persons, but about "some" equestrienne and "a young gallery visitor who becomes significant only as a function of the mental construction".18) The event and its circumstances are clearly analysed and presented. The sentence is clearly and logically structured and makes the gallery visitor's intervention seem like a necessary consequence.19) The contrast between the "frail, consumptive equestrienne" and the "merciless boss" or the audience, whose hands "are actually steam hammers", is clear. The "committed awareness of oppression" makes this design "a human indictment, a model for moral indignation, for social and political awareness of action".20)
An adequate characterisation of the second part seems more difficult. What is noticeable here is the mostly negative assessment, especially by those interpreters who define this part as a false pretence, a lie, a deception, or something similar.21) Even in those interpretations that see a different perspective in the second part, this is usually distinguished negatively from the first part. Philippi emphasises with regard to the gallery visitor "how much he is determined by feelings" and refers to his "irrationally determined interior".22) Beicken contrasts the "committed understanding of reality and awareness of action" of the first part with the "position of the compassionate observer, who withdraws into inwardness and irrationalism... (a regressive position that surrenders to subjectivity)".23) Although Kobs also speaks of the "rupture of the logical framework", of "contradictions" and "ambivalence",24) his overall assessment of the second part, which will be discussed later, is more positive.
The overwhelmingly negative assessment is surprising at first, since the parallelism of the two parts suggests rather their equivalence. This is also emphasised in the story Eleven Sons, in which the seventh son, according to Malcolm Pasley's interpretation, represents the piece Up in the Gallery.25) It says there "He brings both restlessness and reverence for tradition, and he combines both, at least to my mind, into an incontestable whole. "26) This "incontestable whole" is at best only hinted at in the previous interpretations. It presupposes the equivalence of the two parts, which is clearly expressed here,27) whereby the second part as "reverence for tradition" seems rather more positive than the "restlessness" of the first.
How then does the negative assessment of the second part, which, as we shall see, is also unjustified in terms of content, come about? One reason, of course, is that the attitude of the interpreter corresponds in many respects to the attitude of the gallery visitor in the first part. In both cases, critical distance, clear analysis, clear juxtapositions, logical connections, hypothetical considerations are important. But this alone is not enough to explain. In my opinion, the decisive factor is the one-sided emphasis on the above-mentioned elements in most interpretations, which leads to everything that does not correspond to these values appearing negative, emotional, irrational, ambivalent or paradoxical. This is obviously a culturally specific phenomenon, an (often one-sided) emphasis on certain values in modern Western thinking, such as rationality, critical distance, clear differentiation and confrontation, achievement, activism, personal responsibility. These are probably best characterised by the term 'masculine'. In contrast, there are values traditionally described as 'feminine', such as feeling, receptivity, preservation, empathy, closeness to being, passivity. Some of these definitions are certainly problematic, but in our context it is sufficient to clarify the fundamental difference, which is related to C. G. Jung's theory of animus and anima.28) According to this, we are dealing here with two fundamental possibilities of the human being, the integration of which is what makes harmonious human development possible in the first place, whereas a one-sided emphasis only on the 'masculine' or the 'feminine' leads to distortions and deformations. The latter is certainly true of the dominance of 'masculine' values in most Western cultures. These distortions can only be clearly seen in comparison with other cultures, such as the Japanese, where 'feminine' values are more strongly emphasised. This cannot be discussed in detail here, but at least some hints will be given below in connection with the interpretation of the text.29)

3
The 'masculine' values that predominate in the first part of Up in the Gallery and the corresponding attitude of the interpreter have already been described above. However, the fact that another attitude is also necessary, and what this means for interpretation, was impressively emphasised by Kobs in his discussion of the 'perhaps' at the beginning of Apodosis, which for him is not only an expression of despair:

If, however, one surrenders to the twice increasing momentum of the protasis, if one allows oneself to be carried along and swept away by the onslaught of images, then this 'perhaps' suddenly takes on a different meaning. In it, one senses an irrepressible hope breaking through against all reason. .... The interpreter can only do justice to the text if he or she enters into the way of seeing of the reflective consciousness, experiences its world with it, and yet does not abandon critical distance in order to uncover the contradictions of this world in an unbiased analysis.30)

The two attitudes of the interpreter emphasised here clearly correspond to those characterised above as 'masculine' and 'feminine' respectively. In addition to the double meaning of 'perhaps', other elements of the first part, which become visible here, include the comment that the hands are "actually steam hammers". Here, according to Kobs, "the person who imagines" is overwhelmed by the intensity of the images, forgetting the hypothetical character of his object and trying to "penetrate into the essence of the objects".31) However, this attitude has no positive function here. Kobs emphasises the "confusion into which the reflective consciousness is plunged at the interface of protasis and apodosis", so that it can no longer even distinguish between "possibility and actuality, hope and despair".32)

Similarly distorted 'feminine' elements can also be found in the almost sentimental commitment to the 'poor' ("frail, consumptive") equestrienne and against the 'evil' ("whip-wielding, merciless") boss, in the indeterminate flow 'into the ever-widening grey future' and, above all, in the endless circular movement in the first sentence or the circular structure of the whole. The former contradicts the logical straight lines of reflective consciousness and is an image of its hopelessness, while for the reader of the piece, to whom the weeping at the end refers back to the beginning, "the chain of argumentation, which turns into a paradoxical circle, proves to be a question that cannot be solved by rational means."33) However, Kobs later rightly points out34) that this "paradoxical circle" only arises (which is indicated by the terms "chain of argumentation" and "by rational means") if one views the whole in the attitude of the first part, as most interpreters do. The resulting picture of hopelessness also applies to most of these interpretations themselves. But the circle is by no means the whole,35) and the attitude described in the second movement is essentially part of it.
The second part of the text has been convincingly analysed by Kobs, so that we can limit ourselves to discussing the evaluation and classification of the individual elements. The main problem is that Kobs does not take into account that evaluations such as "contrast", "contradiction", "ambivalence", "breaking the logical framework"36) are only possible from the critical distance of the reader or interpreter, whereas they obviously do not apply to the attitude of the gallery visitor in the second movement. Otherwise his reaction, the unconscious weeping at the end, would not be understandable. Kobs has given us important clues to characterise this attitude. In contrast to the first part the second consists of a long series of mostly unconnected individual observations, whose interdependence within the sentence structure and simultaneous progressive isolation remain in abeyance.37) It is a "succession of momentarily flashing details" that does not allow for an ordering overview,38) and even the summarising "since this is so" does not refer to any concrete content. "This, which can be observed in concreto, is simply the way it is. No more can be said about it. "39) The same applies to the reaction of the gallery visitor: "Weeping is not an expression of something, but in its spontaneity and unrelatedness is, as it were, pure expression, which eludes any meaningful determination";40) but precisely in this way it "reaches the bottom of what is only thought or observed".41) Thus, from this characterisation, Kobs also arrives at a uniform attitude of the gallery visitor in the second section.
The ambivalence and contradictions that Kobs identifies only arise because critical analysis does not leave the phenomena in abeyance, but attempts to define them unequivocally. In addition, Kobs' work contains some exaggerations that are reminiscent of the attitude in the first part. For example, must the director, if he is not "caring", be "merciless", the artist, if he is not "happy", be "tormented"?42) Must we first construct "relations of domination and servitude" in order to then oppose them with their inversion, or first describe a world of beautiful appearances in order to then expose them as false?43) If one fully empathises with the attitude of the gallery visitor, sees the phenomena through his eyes, then these opposites disappear in the reality of what is simply as it is, in all its complexity, which is immediately present to the empathetic observer.
Here, we also come up against a limitation of the German language, which makes it difficult for us to grasp such phenomena as a unity, because, apart from the determination of content, we always dissect them with terms such as "multilayered", "double-sided" or " ambivalent".44) But this is precisely what the visitor to the gallery obviously does not do. He absorbs the phenomena as a whole, intuitively feels their complexity and is thus very close to reality; one could almost say that he is ultimately one with the things.45) But at the same time he loses all awareness of himself and thus the possibility of responsible action.
But what is the "unassailable whole" of which Kafka speaks? Kobs has suggested elsewhere what it might be: "Perfect mediation would only be achieved if the viewer were allowed to devote himself to the object without thereby suspending his conscious existence, if consciousness as a medium of cognition were harmoniously united with an unquestioning, unreflective mode of being".46) While the gallery visitor remains trapped in one attitude, Kafka, by juxtaposing the two attitudes, makes the possibility, or at least the necessity, of their integration visible to the reader, and in doing so also involves the reader's own attitude. In my opinion, this is what makes Kafka speak of an "unassailable whole" in Eleven Sons, and why he describes the disposition of this "son" as "so full of hope" and wishes him children and children's children as the only one.47)
Notes
  1. Friedrich Nemec: Kafka-Kritik. Die Kunst der Ausweglosigkeit. München 1981, p. 9 f; cf. p. 65.
  1. op. cit., p. 6.
  2. Gerhard Neumann: Die Arbeit im Alchimistengäßchen (1916-1917). In: Kafka-Handbuch, vol. II. Ed. by H. Binder. Stuttgart 1979, p. 320 f. Cf. the critique by Nemec, op. cit. p. 65.
  3. For example, Wilhelm Emrich: Franz Kafka. Frankfurt-Bonn 1958, p. 35 f; Brigitte Flach: Kafkas Erzählungen. Strukturanalyse und Interpretation. Bonn 1967, p. 135; Hermann Glaser: Franz Kafka „Auf der Galerie". In: Interpretationen moderner Prosa. Frankfurt-Berlin-Bonn 1955, pp. 40-48; John Margetts: Satzsyntaktisches Spiel mit der Sprache. Zu Franz Kafkas „Auf der Galerie". In: Colloquia Germanica 4 (1970), pp. 76-82; Günter Mast: Ein Beispiel moderner Erzählkunst in Mißdeutung und Erhellung. In: Neue Sammlung 2 (1962), pp. 237-247; Heinz Politzer: Franz Kafka. Der Künstler. Frankfurt 1978, pp. 156 f; Claus Reschke: The Problem of Reality in Kafka's „Auf der Galerie". In: Ger-manic Review 51 (1976), pp. 41-51; Blake Lee Spahr: Kafka's „Auf der Galerie". A Stylistic Analysis. In: German Quarterly 33 (1960), pp. 211-215; Uwe Stamer: Sprachstruktur und Wirklichkeit in Kafkas Erzählung ,Auf der Galerie'. In: Festschrift für K. H. Halbach. Ed. by R. B. Schäfer-Maulbetsch et al., Göppingen 1972, pp. 427-452. Cf. the criticism by Peter U. Beicken: Franz Kafka. Eine kritische Einführung in die Forschung. Frankfurt 1974, p. 302 und Nemec, op- cit., pp. 47-54.
  4. It would not be very fruitful to discuss Nemec's often not very pertinent criticism in detail. Therefore, it suffices to point out here that he has been criticised by Kobs (Jörgen Kobs: Kafka. Untersuchungen zu Bewußtsein und Sprache seiner Gestalten. Edited by U. Brech. Bad Homburg 1970) he has obviously only read the few lines quoted by Beicken, which he then also quotes with the latter's errors ("Subjektsein": Nemec, loc. cit., p. 59; Beicken, loc. cit., p. 304 instead of "Subjekt-Sein": Kobs, loc. cit., p. 93. "Jürgen Kobs": Nemec, ibid.; Beicken, loc. cit., p. 402 instead of Jörgen Kobs).
  5. Beicken, op. cit., p. 303. Beicken refers to A. Peter Foulkes: „Auf der Galerie": Some Remarks Concerning Kafka's Concept and Portrayal of Reality. In: Seminar 2 (1966), pp. 34-42; Hartmut Binder: Motiv und Gestaltung bei Franz Kafka. Bonn 1966, p. 193; Helmut Richter, Franz Kafka. Werk und Entwurf. Berlin 1962, pp. 136 f.; Emrich; Mast und Zimmermann.
  6. Binder, op.cit. and: Kafka-Kommentar zu sämtlichen Erzählungen. München 1975, p. 212; Nemec, op. cit., pp. 45-47; cf. Reschke, op. cit., pp. 49-51.
  7. Herbert Kraft: Kafka. Wirklichkeit und Perspektive. Bebenhausen 1972. p. 49.
  1. Franz Kafka: Sämtliche Erzählungen. Ed. by P. Raabe. Frankfurt 1970, p. 129 (thereafter also all the following text quotations).
  2. Cf. Beicken, op. cit., p. 304.
  3. Ibid.., p. 303.
  4. Klaus-Peter Philippi: „Das Schloß": Reflexion und Wirklichkeit. Untersuchungen zu Kafkas Roman „Das Schloß". Tübingen 1966, pp. 52 f. Vgl. Naomi Ritter: Up in the Gallery: Kafka and Prevert. In: Modern Language Notes 96 (1981), S. 632; Ritter, however, believes to be the only one so far to have recognised this connection (ibid.).
  5. Philippi, op. cit., p. 56.
  6. Kobs, op. cit., pp. 79-97. Likewise, but not very convincing in the individual interpretation: Dietrich Krusche: Kafka und Kafka-Deutung. München 1974, pp. 27-29.
  7. op. cit., p. 95 and often.
  8. op. cit., pp. 27-29.
  9. Cf. ibid., p. 85; Beicken, op. cit., p. 304; Nemec, op. cit., p. 45.
  10. Kobs, op. cit., p. 85. Cf. Philippi, op. cit., p. 53.
  11. Kobs, op. cit., p. 85; Philippi, op. cit., pp. 53 f.
  12. Beicken, op. cit., p. 304 f. This aspect is not included in Kob's term "pure reflection" (see above).
21. See the interpretations mentioned above in note 6.
22. op. cit., p. 56.
23. op. cit., p. 306.
24. op. cit., p. 92.
25. Malcolm Pasley: Drei literarische Mystifikationen Kafkas. In: Kafka Symposium. Berlin 1965, pp. 21-26; also Kobs, op. cit., p. 80. Different, but not convincing with regard to Auf der Galerie: Breon Mitchell: Franz Kafka's "Eleven Sons". A New Look at the Puzzle. In: German Quarterly 47 (1974), pp. 191-203; Binder: Kafka-Kommentar . . ., pp. 223 f.
26. Franz Kafka: Erzählungen. Frankfurt o.J. (1952), p. 175.
27. Cf. Kobs, op. cit., p. 81.
28. See Gerhard Schepers: Masculine and Feminine Aspects of Creativity-with an analysis of Kafka's Up in the Gallery. In: Humanities 16 (1982), pp. 105 f. Cf. also above Kafka's characterisation of the two parts as "restlessness" and "reverence for tradition".
29. Cf. Schepers, op. cit., pp. 116-124; also: Images of Amae in Kafka-with special reference to Metamorphosis. In: Humanities 15 (1980), pp. 66-83; and: Zu Kafkas Erzählung "Josefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse". In: Doitsu Bungaku 58 (1977), pp. 79-88.
30. op. cit., p. 88.
31. op. cit., p. 87.
32. op. cit., p. 88.
33. Ibid, p. 82.
34. Ibid., p. 95.
35. Against Kobs, op. cit., pp. 81 f, 87.
36. op. cit., p. 92 and often.
37. Ibid., pp. 83 f.
38. Ibid., p. 86.
39. Ibid, p. 84. Cf. the great role that accepting reality as it is (sonomama) plays in Japanese culture.
40. Ibid, p. 94.
41. Ibid, p. 95.
42. Ibid; cf. 90 f, 91 f.
43. Ibid, p. 90; cf. 89-92.
44. In contrast, Japanese, for example, has a wealth of terms that directly express a phenomenon in all its complexity.
45. Cf. ibid., pp. 84 f, 95. Many Japanese examples could also be cited here; cf. for example the term mononoaware (empathy with things, which encompasses a whole complex of emotional values, including pity and grief).
46. op. cit., p. 465.
47. Erzählungen, pp. 175 f.
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