Kafka’s Liberty

Kafka’s version of the Statue of Liberty, on view as young Karl Rossmann arrives in New York Harbor, seems prescient:


Franz Kafka, Amerika (The Man Who Disappeared), trans. from the German by Michael Hoffman (New York: New Directions, 2002).

Unlike the bridge in Amerika that connects New York and Boston, the sword may not be mere error. When the first chapter of Amerika was published as a separate story in 1913, readers noticed the sword. Kafka let it stand in later printings. The Statue of Liberty, the real one, with the torch, became a subject of public debate this week.

Also from Amerika
An American writing desk : A highway : A bridge : Companions : Under-porters and errand-boys : In one door, out the other