The starting point of the reflection for our thesis is the role of language in modernist novels. Since language played different roles in different periods of the European novel, we start with an investigation which strives to explore the transformations of the role of language in experience of a (literary) subject. We investigate this very transformation on two literary examples from 19th century and one literary example from the beginning of 20th century. After this short historical introduction, we turn to one of the three great modernist writers – Franz Kafka. While his work remains enigmatic even today, we ask ourselves, whether we could decipher some key features of his language, which would perhaps enable us to understand the supposed ambiguity of his texts’. Afterwards we try to connect Kafka’s language with his literary world and its subjectivity. At the end, the thesis tries to develop and understand some key historical innovations, introduced to novel writing by the novels from the period of modernism.
|
