‘Modern satire takes up residence on a planet of the apes. Humans have turned everywhere into monkeys—a degree zero of the human animal, devoid of spiritual life and intellectual worth, a parody of civility and culture, repellent, charmless, disgusting.’ (Valerie Cunningham) Discuss Kafka’s ‘A Report to an Academy’ as a satire of civility and culture. What does Kafka’s satire reveal about the ideals of culture and civilization? INSTRUCTIONS: ? The essay should situate your close reading of the literary text in a historical and critical context that engages with the themes of the question. ? The essential reading I have uploaded: Franz Kafka, “A Report to an Academy”, Franz Kafka: Complete Stories, ed. Nahum N. Glazer (New York: Schocken Books, 1971), pps. 250-59. Ein Bericht für eine Akademie, written and published 1917 in Der Jude and in the 1919 collection Ein Landartz (Kurt Wolff). ?
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