Fathers, Sons, and Letters: Kafka's Literary Development in 'The Judgment' (1/2)

In which we trace Kafka's evolution from a diary sketch to a masterful short story, examining how his treatment of father-son conflict transforms from direct confrontation to psychological complexity.

23 (September 1912) This story “The Judgment” I wrote at one stretch on the night of the 22 to the 23 from 10 o’clock in the evening until 6 o’clock in the morning. My legs had grown so stiff from sitting that I could hardly pull them out from under the desk. The terrible strain and joy, how the story unfolded itself before me how I moved forward in an expanse of water.¹

In February or March 1911 (the entry is undated), Franz Kafka jotted down a peculiar sketch in his diary. Titled ‘Die städtische Welt’ (‘The Urban World,’ sometimes translated as ‘In the City’²), this unpolished piece depicts a confrontation between a son and his father, followed by the son’s failed attempt to rouse a friend from bed. Eighteen months later, in what he described as ‘a complete opening of body and soul,’ Kafka would pen ‘Das Urteil’ (‘The Judgment’³) in a single night of feverish creation. The evolution between these two pieces—from a rough diary entry to a story later published in the Arkadia review—reveal…