Poseidon (short story)

"Poseidon" (German: "Poseidon") is a small piece of prose of Franz Kafka, written in 1920.

The sea god Poseidon is presented here as a disgruntled manager of the waters, which he does not really know.

History

In the fall of 1920, Kafka broke away from his lover Milena Jesenska. It was created by a productive push a series of short prose pieces, including "The Refusal". Kafka did not publish them, therefore his friend Max Brod titled them when he published them.

Plot

Poseidon is sitting at the desk and makes calculations on the waters he has to manage. For his work, he could rely on staff, but rather prefers to work on his own. He does not like his work but sees no alternative.

Poseidon laments that people imagine him constantly chauffeuring the waters with his trident. Instead, he sits in the depths of the oceans, doing continuous calculations and hardly ever seeing the sea. Only on his occasional trips to Jupiter, from which he often returns angrily, he sees the sea during a hasty ascent to the Olympus. He is afraid that he will have to wait until the end of the world for a quiet moment and a tour of the sea.

Form

The short story consists of two paragraphs. The narrative perspective is not established and shifts between the paragraphs. An anonymous narrator tells the story, while an impersonal perspective by someone superior adds ironic comments.

The second paragraph is dominated by Poseidon's dissatisfaction, but again he is not the narrator.

Works by Franz Kafka

Novels

Short stories

1902–12	"Shamefaced Lanky and Impure in Heart" "Description of a Struggle" "Wedding Preparations in the Country" "The Judgment" "The Stoker" The Metamorphosis "The Aeroplanes at Brescia"

1914–17	"In the Penal Colony" "The Village Schoolmaster" "Before the Law" "Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" "A Country Doctor" "The Hunter Gracchus" "The Great Wall of China" "A Message from the Emperor" "A Report to an Academy" "A Dream" "Up in the Gallery" "A Fratricide" "The Next Village" "A Visit to a Mine" "Jackals and Arabs" "The Bridge" "The Bucket Rider" "The New Advocate" "An Old Manuscript" "The Knock at the Manor Gate" "Eleven Sons" "My Neighbor" "A Crossbreed" "The Cares of a Family Man"

1917–23	"The Refusal" "A Hunger Artist" "Investigations of a Dog" "A Little Woman" "The Burrow" "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk" "A Common Confusion" "The Truth about Sancho Panza" "The Silence of the Sirens" "Prometheus" "The City Coat of Arms" "Poseidon" "Fellowship" "At Night" "The Problem of Our Laws" "The Conscription of Troops" "The Test" "The Vulture" "The Helmsman" "The Top" "A Little Fable" "Home-Coming" "First Sorrow" "The Departure" "Advocates" "The Married Couple" "Give It Up!" "On Parables"

Short story
collections

Diaries and
notebooks

Letters
and essays

Plays

The Warden of the Tomb

Category

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