The fight with the father

Francisco de Goya’s famous painting, which shows the Father God Kronos as a cannibalistic aggressor, Kafka commented laconically: “Kronos who ate his sons – the most honest father.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the generation of expressionist poets updated the struggle against the father as a necessary revolt against patriarchy and celebrated it in numerous works as a struggle to the death. But none of these authors succeeded like Kafka in charging this struggle with magical-suggestive action pictures in such a way that important insights of contemporary depth psychology were convincingly illustrated.

During his many years of teaching at the University of Heidelberg, Dr. Joachim Wich has paid particular attention to how his international student audience reacts to reading Kafka’s texts.