Bruce, I., Kafka and Cultural Zionism: Dates in Palestine: [Review]

Iris Bruce has presented us with an important book about Kafka and Zionism, which makes it possible for readers in English to gain the most comprehensive understanding to date of his personal and literary relationship to the ideology and cultural expressions of this Jewish-national movement. Her stated goals are "to lay out the formative influences (family and personal history, historical events, readings, cultural interests, and activities) that led Kafka to become engaged in Zionist activities and to compare and contrast his practical, cultural Zionism with the beliefs and convictions of other contemporary Zionists" (p. 4). In fact, she accomplishes much more than these aims. A fair amount of scholarly attention has been given to the topic of Kafka and Zionism over the years, and Iris Bruce draws on, and acknowledges her indebtedness to, the scholarly foundation which has been laid in the past. Despite the efforts of many scholars, Kafka's very strong Jewish and Zionist interests seem to be known only to a limited readership or appreciated by a small group of specialists. Why this resistance continues to be the case requires separate consideration. The various Jewish and Zionist contexts of his life and writings, even when noted cursorily by representatives of the vast empire of the Kafka industry, have been neither sufficiently explicated nor integrated into the numerous biographical accounts and ambitious studies of his writings and career.