Professor David Peimer
Kafka’s Circle
Summary
Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short story writer based in Prague, who is widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. Professor David Peimer discusses not only the influence of Kafka himself, but also the wide-ranging influence of those in his immediate artistic circle.
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing in New York, UK, Berlin, EU Parliament (Brussels), Athens, Budapest, Zululand and more. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published widely with books including: Armed Response: Plays from South Africa, the digital book, Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.
That’s a great question. I think some of the humour is certainly full of irony, paradox, wit. Would I call it Kafka-esque? I’m not sure because Seinfeld deals more with, you know, almost friend and love relationships, ups and downs, snakes and ladders, rarely. I dunno if it deals with the bigger pic, the picture of being a file, being data, of searching for whatever you’ve done wrong but you haven’t done anything wrong. All these things. I would hesitate to call it Kafka-esque, I call it comedy more than satire. Satire is about ridiculing something. Comedy not necessarily has the quality of ridicule.
He died in Prague, and he’s buried in the old Jewish cemetery in Prague, 1924. His parents, yeah, as I said, stayed in Prague and died there before the war.