Love at a Distance: Kafka and the Sirens

Ruth Martin

Jump to Content

Love at a Distance: Kafka and the Sirens

In: Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging

Author:

Ruth Martin

Ruth Martin
Search for other papers by Ruth Martin in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 81–99

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401204705_006

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€42.00€35.00 excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

In the short story “The Silence of the Sirens,” Kafka rewrites the myth of how Odysseus escapes the sirens in his own unique style. I will argue that, far from being an idiosyncratic reading of Homer, Kafka’s text uses the rich history of the myth to explore an idea prevalent in the Austrian sexual psychology of his day: Distanzliebe, or love at a distance. With its origins in “courtly” love poetry of the Middle Ages, Distanzliebe plays upon the mutual exclusivity of idealised (male) love and proximity to its object. The idea is articulated most radically in Otto Weininger’s book Sex and Character, a text that voiced the underlying misogyny of the times in its attempt to solve the “Woman Question.” Love at a distance is a paradigm for both Kafka’s story and his relationships with women, though it also has a wider application. Kafka’s friend and executor, Max Brod, uses it as a metaphor for racial and cultural relations in the twentieth century. He sees the relationship as paradoxical, since: “where love is there can be no distance – and where there is distance, no love.” I will examine Kafka’s story as a metaphor through which the paradox and its implications may best be grasped.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789401204705/B9789401204705-s006.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging

Series: At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries, Volume: 36

E-Book ISBN:: 9789401204705

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 01 Jan 2007

Subjects

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	670	399	9
Full Text Views	8	0	0
PDF Views & Downloads	18	1	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Love at a Distance: Kafka and the Sirens

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging

Table of Contents

Metrics

Metrics