Bringing Kafka’s “Castle” to Life

Friday June 1st 2018, St John’s College Oxford, 9.30-19.00

Although unfinished, Kafka’s final novel project “Das Schloss”/“The Castle” has become a classic in the canon of world literature. This is thanks in large part to the fragment’s various editors and critics, who have sought to bring Kafka’s mind-boggling survey of a countryside bureaucracy to life, beginning with Max Brod’s seminal edition of 1926. To mark the publication of a new and ground-breaking critical edition of “Das Schloss”/“The Castle”, the Oxford Kafka Research Centre and the Institut für Textkritik (Heidelberg) are pleased to announce a series of outreach events, student workshops, and a public evening podium event.

Bringing Kafka’s “Castle” to Life.
Podium discussion with Carolin Duttlinger, Ed Harris, Katrin Kohl, Barry Murnane, Roland Reuß and Ritchie Robertson
5.00-6.30pm, Friday June 1st 2018,
St John’s College Auditorium

To mark the publication of the new critical edition of “Das Schloss”/“The Castle” this podium event will discuss the legacy of the novel, bringing Kafka to new audiences, and Oxford’s position on the global map of Kafka Studies. Carolin Duttlinger, Katrin Kohl, Barry Murnane, and Ritchie Robertson will be joined by Roland Reuß, co-editor of the FKA Historical-Critical Kafka Edition, and award-winning playwright Ed Harris, who recently adapted the novel for BBC Radio 4. The event will be followed by a drinks reception to celebrate publication of Carolin Duttlinger’s new edited volume Kafka in Context (Cambridge UP). All welcome.

Schools Programme, Prestwich and Larkin Rooms, St John’s College

9.45-10.00 Pupils arrive

10.10-10.45 Studying Modern Languages at Oxford, admissions, application, choices

11.00 Ed Harris workshop: Adapting Kafka’s “Castle”

12.30 Lunch

13.30 Tours of Colleges

14.30 Discussion with current students (SLO)

15.30 End of activities

Student Workshops, The Barn, St John’s College

11.00-12.30 Editing Kafka’s “Castle”. A practical workshop in editing with distinguished experts on Kafka’s manuscript, Roland Reuß and Peter Staengle

14.00-15.30 From drafts to broadcasts: adapting Kafka’s “Castle”. Workshop on dramatic adaptation with award-winning playwright Ed Harris

Round Table Discussion on Funding for German and Humanities Research post-Brexit, Taylor Institute, Room 2, 15.00-16.00

Chair: Katrin Kohl. Speakers will include Dr Wilhelm Krull/VolkswagenStiftung; Dan Grimley/Associate Head of Humanities Division (Research); Philip Bullock/Director of TORCH; Ian Watson/Chair of Modern and Medieval Languages; Charlie Louth/Chair of Sub-Faculty of German; Ritchie Robertson/Taylor Chair of German; Henrike Lähnemann/Chair of Medieval German; Roland Reuß/Institut für Textkritik; KD Wolff/Stroemfeld Verlag