Kafka and Dostoyevsky: The Shaping of Influence

This book evaluates the importance of Dostoyevsky’s life and imaginative fiction as a stimulus to Kafka’s own writing. Dostoyevskian material is situated within detailed readings of particular works. The principle sources discussed are The Double, Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, and Dostoyevsky’s (auto) biography. It is argued that Kafka’s use of Dostoyevsky is driven by antagonism as much as by admiration.