Exhibition
Komplett Kafka

A comic biography

Thu, 30.05.2024 -
Wed, 31.07.2024
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata

To mark Franz Kafka's memorial year 2024, the Goethe-Institut is organizing the poster exhibition KOMPLETT KAFKA in cooperation with the artist Nicolas Mahler and the Literaturhaus Stuttgart. You also have the opportunity to immerse yourself virtually in the mysterious world of Kafka's novels.

Franz Kafka not only wrote prose, he was also passionate about drawing: “I was once a great draughtsman,” he wrote half ironically, half proudly to his long-term fiancée Felice Bauer in 1913 about his artistic ambitions. His drawing had once given him “more satisfaction than anything else”. So what could be more fitting than to honor him with a comic biography on his anniversary? And then by Nicolas Mahler, who has a similarly minimalist drawing style?

Mahler presents Kafka's life and work in an inimitably witty and poignant way and does not shy away from the really big questions: Why did Kafka's plan to write a series of cheap travel guides fail? Who wrote the sequel to one of his most important works, “The Remetamorphosis of Gregor Samsa”? And what was the “white slave” all about? The answers and much more can be found in KOMPLETT KAFKA. (Source: Suhrkamp Verlag)

NICOLAS MAHLER

Nicolas Mahler (*1969, Vienna), the Austrian draughtsman and illustrator, is known to Czech readers as the author of comic adaptations of famous literary works (Bernhard's Old Masters, 2013, Musil's The Man Without Qualities, 2014) or as the co-creator of the comic Nachtgestalten, which he published together with Jaroslav Rudiš. Mahler is the author of an extensive and respected body of work, including contributions to newspapers and magazines, which he began drawing after graduating from high school, as well as over thirty books. Some have been adapted as animated films or puppet plays. Nicolas Mahler is a three-time winner of the prestigious Max and Moritz Prize for the best comic in the German-speaking world. In Prague, he will present the Czech translation of a minimalist comic biography of Franz Kafka entitled Kafka v kostce.

INAUGURATION OF THE EXHIBITION

The exhibition will be ianugurated at 6:30 pm on 30th May. Prof. Rosy Singh from Jawaharlal Nehru University and Prof. Romit Roy from Viswa-Bharati University will talk about Kafka, his life, and his literature.

Rosy Singh is Professor of German Studies at the Centre of German Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She received her doctorate in 1996 with a thesis on Kafka. Since then, she has continued to study Kafka.

Romit Roy studied German language and literature at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Since 1990 he has been teaching German language and literature at the University of Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan - first in the Department of English and Other Modern European Languages, then from 2014 in the Centre for Modern European Languages, Literatures and Culture Studies.

All are cordially invited.