Franz Kafka /Alfred Kubin: Ein Landarzt. La parábola sin clave

Abstract

Alfred Kubin's interpretation of Franz Kafka's narrative "A Country Doctor" includes features which the illustrator had never used before. Far from depicting the text they accompany in a violent or enigmatic way, the illustrations Kubin conceived for this story show a meticulous world which accentuates the feeling of insecurity in the reader. Kubin and the Czech writer are kindred souls: his illustrations constitute fragments which lead the reader to an inevitable "ruin", to devastation. Kubin illustrates the inexistence of a key by creating a "veristic” allegory of the narrative and, thus, the reader discovers a universe of "fragments", which are attracted to each other as if they were magnetic fields, but which still maintain their singularity. And, by doing so, both Kubin and Kafka "remove the traditional medium for gesture to retain an object of never ending reflection".