学术史语境中的卡夫卡“遗嘱”

A Review of Kafka's Testaments in the Context of Kafka Criticism

卡夫卡的遗嘱问题是卡夫卡学术的真正起点。被视为遗嘱的两个文件,是指令清晰的法律文书,还是像卡夫卡寓言作品一样需要进一步解读的文学文本,一直备受争议。对遗嘱的不同理解,在某种意义上也决定了卡夫卡学者对卡夫卡作品性质和价值的不同判断。亚伯拉罕献祭独子以撒的故事,为理解卡夫卡的遗嘱问题提供了一个富有想象力的参照。最后,卡夫卡是否真心要毁掉自己的作品,布罗德是否为卡夫卡真正的朋友,以及卡夫卡的作品在世间的流传是它们的荣耀还是耻辱,应被置于一个更大的可能世界逻辑框架中加以考量。

Understanding Kafka＇s testaments is the very start of Kafka criticism and in a certain, sense also determines how to evaluate Kafka＇s works as a whole. It is a polemical issue among different Kafka scholars whether the two testaments are legal documents with clear instructions, or the Kafkaesque texts which need to be further interpreted. The story of Abraham who is to sacrifice his only son as a burnt offering according to God＇s order provides an imaginative referential pattern for interpreters to understand what Kafka and Brod had done. At last, this article suggests that whether Kafka really meant to destroy his works, whether Brod was Kafka＇s real friend, and whether the circulation of Kafka＇s works was their glory or shame, can be examined within a larger logical framework of the possible-world.