Gathering of Material Toward a Book: A Jungian Study of Kafka

FAIN: FB-12458-75

Walter L. Robbins
Nasson College (Springvale, ME 04083)

Project is for the gathering of material toward a book, to be written in 1976-77, entitled, A Jungian Study of Kafka. Franz Kafka is an example of Jung's concept of the "visionary artist" (Philipson) who derives his material from a primordial experience of the collective unconscious, whose influence is apparent in archetypal images of his works, the dying king ("Eine kaiserliche Botschaft"); the old man and the young girl ("Der Grufwachter"); the mandala (for example, "Bilder anus der Verteidigung eines Hofes"). A Jungian study will shed light on Kafka and his writings, including an investigation of the possibility of a correlation between Kafka's works and his life, according to Jung's "stages of life.