Franz Kafka and His Prague Contexts by Nekula Marek;

Author:Nekula, Marek;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LIT004130 LITERARY CRITICISM / European / General
Publisher: Karolinum Press
Published: 2017-11-28T16:00:00+00:00

FRANZ KAFKA AT SCHOOL

KAFKA’S EDUCATION IN CZECH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

As I pointed out in the chapter ‘Franz Kafka’s languages’, Franz Kafka learned Czech in his parental home before he started going to school. That does not mean he learned Czech through communication with his parents, with whom, even though they knew and used Czech, he and his sisters spoke – and later exchanged letters – in German.1 Kafka probably learned Czech primarily through communicating with his parents’ servants and with his peers. There are certain indications that his Czech was influenced by these speakers, for example in his use of the word noc (night) in the non-standard form noce (nominative plural) generally used in central, western and northern regions of Bohemia, whereas in the dialect of South Bohemia, where his father grew up, the common form is noci.2 The following analysis, however, is confined to Kafka’s tutored acquisition of standard Czech, the main basis of his ability to read official, literary and academic texts in Czech and use the Czech language actively – with certain limitations – in writing.

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