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Why Karl calls himself "Negro": the representation of waiting and the waited-on in Franz Kafka's Der Verschollene.

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From: West Virginia University Philological Papers
Date: 20030922
Author:William, Jennifer Marston

Er nannte daher, da ihm im Augenblick kein anderer Name einfiel, nur den Rufnamen aus seinen letzten Stellungen: 'Negro'. *

Kafka's cryptic inclusion of the pseudonym "Negro" in his America-novel Der Verschollene, presented during the European immigrant Karl Rossmann's application process at the traveling Oklahoma Nature Theater, has prompted a variety of deliberations and interpretations. While not refuting any of these in particular, I suggest that Kafka's use of "Negro" in Der Verschollene in this perplexing and intriguing scene marks a critique on American society that is ...