“桑丘·潘沙的魔鬼”——卡夫卡对《堂吉诃德》的改写

Sancho Panza’s Demon:Kafka’s Rewriting of Don Quixote

本雅明关注并研究卡夫卡,注意到了卡夫卡对《堂吉诃德》的非凡改写。卡夫卡关注的是桑丘·潘沙而不是堂吉诃德,他的小说不是对《堂吉诃德》的阐释或续写,而是非凡的创作,其中最突出之处就是“堂吉诃德与桑丘·潘沙关系的大逆转”。卡夫卡的这种大逆转别有深意,他将一部更多作为喜剧或悲喜剧的《堂吉诃德》改写成了一则苦涩的犹太故事,呈现的是人性中坚定不移的不可摧毁性。从某种意义上说,卡夫卡就是堂吉诃德,堂吉诃德就是卡夫卡。如果像卡夫卡所说,堂吉诃德是由桑丘·潘沙创造的,那么,桑丘·潘沙则真正属于卡夫卡的独创。

Walter Benjamin concerned himself about Franz Kafka,observing that in the case of Cervantes’ s Don Quixote,Kafka’s focus was Sancho Panza,rather than Don Quixote.Benjamin noted Kafka’s remarkable rewriting of Don Quixote.Kafka’s story is not an interpretation or a sequel to Don Quixote,but a piece of extraordinarily creative writing,in which the most outstanding feature is “the sense of inversion in the relationship between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.” The profound meaning of this inversion is that Kafka transforms Don Quixote from a comedy or tragicomedy,as we have often seen,to a bitter Jewish story,presenting a permanent trust in the indestructibility in human nature.Kafka,in some senses,is Don Quixote,and vice versa.If,as Kafka writes,Don Quixote is created by Sancho Panza,then Sancho Panza shows the sheer originality of Kafka.