Although Franz Kafka spent most of his life in Prague, the reception of his work in the Czech lands has so far only been analyzed in the form of partial studies or dissertations, each focusing on a specific period or circle of reception. The subtitle of the new monograph already suggests that Veronika Tuckerová strives for a comprehensive analysis and a scope that includes not only the issue of translating Kafka’s works into Czech and their critical reception, but also their creative reception, that is, the reading of Kafka as a source of inspiration, as well as the exclusion of Kafka from the publishing space, the use of Kafka to build an image of Prague as a tourist attraction, or the appropriation of Kafka as a tool in political fights.

The analyses are well supported by a wide range of source material, not only from printed sources, but also from archival sources and interviews with eyewitnesses. In the case of printed sources, Tuckerová considers not only academic works but also memoirs and correspondence. All the interpretations are thus richly substantiated by material evidence, which is not always the case when writing about Kafka.

The book is divided into five parts, each devoted to a specific theme. The first focuses on Czech translations of The Castle (published in 1935) and The Trial (1958). Tuckerová comments not only on the style of Pavel Eisner’s translations, but mainly on his interpretation of Kafka’s work set in the concept of the “triple ghetto,” in which, according to Eisner, German-writing authors of Jewish origin found themselves in Prague. This concept intended to express ethnic, social, and linguistic isolation, while also metaphorically referring to the Prague ghetto as a historical, albeit now defunct, place of memory.

The second chapter examines the influence of Kafka’s works on unofficial Czech writers and visual artists in the 1940s and 1950s. It shows the surviving impact of the Czech translation of The Castle from 1935, and short stories published in 1930s periodicals. It traces the birth of the concept of “The Kafkaesque”: Kafka is thus received as a visionary whose vision of absurdity takes on real features in the era of totalitarian régimes.

The third chapter analyzes the attempt to incorporate Kafka’s work into a Marxist interpretation as evidence of the inevitable crisis of capitalism. The protagonist here is Eduard Goldstücker, organizer of an international conference on Kafka in Liblice in 1963. Tuckerová convincingly shows how an attempt at Marxist legitimization of Kafka was converted later, in the 1970s and 1980s, into the image of counterrevolution staged by the Prague Spring protagonists, including Goldstücker as a revisionist.

The fourth chapter is devoted to the hitherto completely neglected topic of intellectual tourism in Prague in the 1960s, inspired by the book Kafka and Prague, published in German and English in 1960 in Czechoslovakia, but intended for export. Jan Lukas’s photographs and Emanuel Frynta’s texts created an image of Kafka’s city that captured the traces of the past: the “old Prague.” The book constructed an innocent nostalgic perception that allowed western tourists to walk through Prague in the footsteps of Franz Kafka, an author who already gained iconic status in the western world.

The final chapter focuses on the appropriation of Kafka’s work by dissident circles during the normalization era of the 1970s and 1980s. It analyzes references to Kafka in the essays of Václav Havel and Ivan Klíma, as well as the role played by Philip Roth’s visits to Prague and their subsequent use in his novels. It also provides a remarkable analysis of the appropriation of Kafka by the Czech literary and musical underground, which helped them to build up the concept of the “merry ghetto.”

The conclusion not only summarizes all the analytical probes but also places them in a dynamic contrast with the dominant commercial tourism that dominates contemporary Prague and offers Kafka as an emblematic attraction. The entire book stands out for the breadth of sources used for interpretation, without losing its focus and clarity. Tuckerová has managed to map out this rich topic in such a way that it does not get lost in descriptive paraphrases; on the contrary, it offers the possibility of abstracting conclusions towards the processes of adaptation and appropriation working in cultures generally.