French Literature Reviews - 2026

Stéphane Mosès Exégèse d'une légende. Lectures de Kafka
Comparative and World Literature

Stéphane Mosès
Exégèse d’une légende. Lectures de Kafka

Editions de l'éclat
Hors collection
2006
Isbn: 2-84162-135-9 / Ean 13 : 978284162135
128 pages
10.00 €

Publisher's overview:

Yet another book on Kafka? Few twentieth-century literary works have been as extensively commented upon as his. With their enigmatic quality, his narratives have consistently invited readers to look for hidden meanings behind his texts. Interpreters have given free rein to their imaginations without the slightest restraint. Yet no single interpretation can exhaust this immense body of work, which most often stages its own interpretation within the very writing itself, as if Kafka were playfully ironizing the meaning of his own texts. It is precisely this irony that Stéphane Mosès brings to light through his reading of four of the most enigmatic tales: "The Silence of the Sirens", "Before the Law", "The Metamorphosis", and "The Next Village".

Stéphane Mosès is Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published numerous books on Walter Benjamin, Franz Rosenzweig, and Gershom Scholem. Editions de l'éclat previously published his Beyond the War: Three Studies on Levinas in 2004 (translated into Spanish and Italian).

Franz Kafka occupies a singular position in twentieth-century literature, where his enigmatic narratives have continuously prompted diverse critical responses and varied attempts at interpretation. Stéphane Mosès approaches this heavily commented corpus by focusing on specific short texts, notably The Silence of the Sirens, Before the Law, The Metamorphosis, and The Next Village. The volume examines the irony through which the texts stage their own interpretation, reflecting the relationship between narrative form and meaning.

Readers interested in modern literary criticism and readings of Kafka may find this study relevant. Stéphane Mosès is Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has published numerous books on Walter Benjamin, Franz Rosenzweig, and Gershom Scholem. Editions de l'éclat previously published his Beyond the War: Three Studies on Levinas in 2004.