Philosophy Talk Live: Franz Kafka and the World Without a Path

Franz Kafka is famous for his stunning, unparalleled, and often searing writings, from novels like The Trial and The Castle to short stories like “The Metamorphosis” and “A Hunger Artist.” All of these fictions clearly engage with philosophy, and they often seem to present a world without a clear path. Even as readers, we often struggle to find a clear path, something that would help us find our way in Kafka’s extraordinary world. So what does Kafka actually believe? What can we learn by spending time with his stories? And are they really trying to “teach” us something, or is their philosophical gift to us something far more precious?

Join our live audience at KALW’s downtown event space as the Philosophers record a brand-new episode with Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Tulane University and author of “The Everyday’s Fabulous Beyond: Nonsense, Parable, and the Ethics of the Literary in Kafka and Wittgenstein.”

In addition to thought-provoking conversation and audience questions, the show will feature multimedia reporting from our Roving Philosophical Reporter and satirical commentary from Ian Shoales the Sixty-Second Philosopher.

Please join us for this free event, and donate if you can to support independent public media.

Part of the Jewish Thinkers series, generously sponsored by Common Era.

This Episode's Guest

Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé is Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature, and in the Department of English, where she is Director of Graduate Studies. She is also a faculty affiliate in the Stone Center for Latin American Studies, the Cinema Studies Program, and the Program for Gender and Sexuality Studies. She specializes in comparative, interdisciplinary work in Transatlantic English-language, European, and Latin American literature and thought of the 19th-21st centuries with a focus on comparative modernisms, their continued resonance in global fiction and film, and the relationship between philosophy and literature.

This Episode's Hosts

Josh Landy is the Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French, Professor of Comparative Literature, and co-director of the Literature and Philosophy Initiative at Stanford University. He joined the Philosophy Talk team as co-host in 2017 when John Perry retired from the show. Among many other publications, he is the author of Philosophy as Fiction: Self, Deception, and Knowledge in Proust and How to Do Things with Fictions. He is currently writing a second book on Proust for Oxford’s Very Short Introductions series.

Blakey Vermeule is the Albert Guérard Professor of Literature in the English department at Stanford, and she lectures in the Philosophy and Literature program. She teaches and writes about evolutionary moral psychology and ethics from the 17th century to the present. She has written three books on topics related to moral psychology and is finishing a long project on mind science in the age of behavioral economics.

There is a $10 - $20 sliding scale suggested donation for this event. Nobody will be turned away for lack of funds.

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📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI🚪 Reception doors open at 6:00🗣️ Program begins at 7:00🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want

Please note:

• The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
• We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
• Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
• If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location; free street parking is available across from the venue at 7:00 pm