Literature and the invention of the cinematograph: from the debate of the expressionists to Kafka’s fascination

Abstract

Cinema, heralded as a testament to modernity and inventive spirit, became a challenge to literary expressionism as it went from being considered literature without words to an artistic modality competing with drama. Authors, although fascinated by the new medium, struggled between aversion to what they deemed trivial and an optical seduction from which was impossible to escape from. However, as early as 1910, Alfred Döblin recommended novelists adopt a cinematic style. These were the years when a young Kafka attended the cinema in search of inspiration and contrast to his everyday life, as can be seen in texts such as The Man Who Disappeared. Examples of this include the dynamic succession of images of the metropolis or the incorporation of cinematic perspectives. However, the seventh art left only a slight imprint on Kafka, a fact explained by his unique relationship with the image. This article deals with the problematic relationship that expressionist writers had with cinema in its early days, as well as Kafka’s fascination with all media of visual transmission.