Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk

Last updated • 7 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
"Josephine, the Singer or the Mouse Folk"
Short story by Franz Kafka
Original titleJosefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse
TranslatorClement Greenberg (1942)
Willa and Edwin Muir (1948)
Country Czechoslovakia
Language German
Genre(s) Short story
Publication
Published in Prager Presse
Publication typeperiodical
Publication date1924
Published in English1942

"Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk" (German: "Josefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse") is the last short story written by Franz Kafka. It deals with the relationship between an artist and her audience. The story was included in the collection A Hunger Artist (Ein Hungerkünstler) published by Verlag Die Schmiede soon after Kafka's death.

Contents

Plot

Josephine is a rarity among the mouse people, for she has the innate ability to sing, which no others in the community have displayed in recent history. Although they are not a musical people and some question Josephine's ability, while others adore her and consider her a communal treasure, all of the mouse people gather round to listen whenever Josephine starts to sing and appreciate her performances as something that helps them tolerate their unusually hardworking lives.

Sometimes I have the impression that our people sees its relationship with Josephine rather like this: that she, this fragile, vulnerable, somehow distinguished creature, in her opinion distinguished by her song, has been entrusted to us and that we must look after her; the reason for this is not clear to anyone, only the fact seems to be established. But what has been entrusted to one's care one does not laugh at; to do so would be a breach of duty; the utmost spite that the most spiteful amongst us can vent on Josephine is when they sometimes say: "When we see Josephine it is no laughing matter." [1]

The narrator begins by asserting that whoever has not heard Josephine sing does not know the true power of music, but, upon reflection, he questions if Josephine even sings, or simply whistles, which all the mice people can do, and indeed do regularly. He says there is really nothing particularly noteworthy about her voice taken by itself, except perhaps its fragility, but that there must be something special about Josephine, since seeing her perform makes everyone forget, at least temporarily, any criticisms they may have about her; he wonders if her effect may come from making a spectacle of an everyday thing, in which case her average voice could be an asset. After some further refining of his estimation of Josephine and what she provides to the community, the narrator decides that what is held so dearly by the mouse people is not her 'ability', but the opportunity to gather and reflect in silence that her performances provide. They value these gatherings the most when times are the hardest, and Josephine remains influential in the community even though her performances sometimes attract the attention of the many enemies of the mouse people and lead to an attack from which she is always rushed to safety.

There are regular attempts made by Josephine to get the community of mouse people to allow her to stop her regular work so she can focus on her 'singing', though the narrator thinks what she is actually looking for is public recognition of the value of her art. She starts by arguing that she could sing even better if she had time to recuperate between performances, but the community ignores her pleas, so she begins to shorten her performances and feign injuries, but no one except for her supporters takes much notice. Eventually, Josephine disappears. She is initially missed and looked for, but the narrator comments that, in the end, she has only hurt herself by running away, since the mouse people were able to survive before she was alive and will now go on without her, at first with only their memories of her songs, and later without even those.

So perhaps we shall not miss so very much after all, while Josephine, for her part, delivered from earthly afflictions, which however to her mind are the privilege of chosen spirits, will happily lose herself in the countless throng of the heroes of our people, and soon, since we pursue no history, be accorded the heightened relief of being forgotten along with all her brethren. [1]

It is of note that the mouse people are not ever described as such within the story. It is uncertain if they are actually mice. Many aspects of them and their lives are mouselike (that danger is always imminent and enemies many, the terrain they live in, that they are so very hardworking and practical, the practice of their children being turned out from their families into the wider community very shortly after birth, that they keep no written records, etc). They are described by the narrator, one of their number, as, when Josephine begins to sing, falling "quiet as mice"—aside from the title, this is the only time that mice are referred to. It is probable that Kafka intended the issue to be left up to our own judgment, the suggestion playfully bandied about, but no explicit answer given. Either way, whether they really are mice is of little importance to our understanding of the story, while the necessity for the idea to be in the reader's mind is central to the reading experience.

Themes

The Role of the Artist in Society

There appears to be the irony of critique here, of both the artist and the society, in their failed ability to co-operate. The artist demands too much, failing to recognize the asceticism or extra burden that has to be placed somewhere, simply by her having her role and investing time and energy into it. Society fails to understand what her value is. Although they understand it intuitively, they never use it to search for and discover the end for which they are living. And so they remain at the level of brute survival, making them mouse-like, and not so very human.

Family

Josephine the singer is part of the mouse people family. They love her, protect her and think she is vitally important to the community. [2]

Solitude

Josephine the singer suffers in the mouse community, for she is alone in her talent and mindset. Because she sings for the rest of the mice, she is looked upon as different—for better or for worse. When she eventually disappears, people soon forget her. [3]

Use in philosophy

Austrian philosopher Gerald Raunig [de] uses "Josephine" as a frame story in his book Factories of Knowledge, Industries of Creativity to critique the factory-like aspects of the university and the industrial characteristics of the arts. [4] [5] In Raunig's book, the relationship between Josephine's singing and the daily life of the mouse folk entails both deterritorialization and reterritorialization, concepts found in the work of philosophers Deleuze and Guattari. Specifically, the allure of Josephine's song is a concentrating, reterritorializing force, while the daily life of the mouse folk involves constant movement or deterritorialization.

Adaptations

The story was adapted by Michael McClure into a play, with the altered title of Josephine the Mouse Singer. It won an Obie Award for Best Play of the Year.

In 2014, Tangerine Dream produced an EP interpretation.

Cultural Influence

The band Consolidated included a song entitled "Josephine the Singer" on their debut album The Myth of Rock. The song dealt with themes similar to those in the story.

Notes

  1. 1 2 http://www.bookrags.com/notes/kaf/PART7.html [Accessed December 10, 2006.]
  2. ↑ http://www.bookrags.com/notes/kaf/TOP1.html [Accessed December 10, 2006.]
  3. ↑ http://www.bookrags.com/notes/kaf/TOP3.html [Accessed on October 10, 2006.]
  4. ↑ Negri, Antonio (2013). Afterword. Factories of Knowledge, Industries of Creativity. By Raunig, Gerald. Semiotext(e) Intervention Series. Vol. 15. Translated by Derieg, Aileen; Mecchia, Giuseppina. Semiotext(e). ISBN   9781584351160.
  5. ↑ "Factories of Knowledge, Industries of Creativity". mitpress.mit.edu. MIT Press.

Related Research Articles

<i>Bagpuss</i> 1974 British stop-motion animated TV series

Bagpuss is a British animated children's television series which was made by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate through their company Smallfilms. The series of thirteen episodes was first broadcast from 12 February to 7 May 1974. The title character was "a saggy, old cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams". Although only thirteen episodes were produced and broadcast, the programme remains fondly remembered, and was frequently repeated in the UK until 1986. In early 1999, Bagpuss topped a BBC poll for the UK's favourite children's television programme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Kafka</span> Bohemian writer (1883–1924)

Franz Kafka was an Austrian-Czech novelist and writer from Prague. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature; he wrote in German. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typically features isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers. It has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity. His best known works include the novella The Metamorphosis and the novels The Trial and The Castle. The term Kafkaesque has entered English to describe absurd situations like those depicted in his writing.

<i>Anchors Aweigh</i> (film) 1945 film by George Sidney

Anchors Aweigh is a 1945 American musical comedy film starring Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, and Gene Kelly, with songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. Directed by George Sidney, the film also features José Iturbi, Pamela Britton, and Dean Stockwell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mighty Mouse</span> American animated anthropomorphic superhero mouse

Mighty Mouse is an American animated character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox. He is an anthropomorphic superhero mouse, originally called Super Mouse, and made his debut in the 1942 short The Mouse of Tomorrow. The name was changed to Mighty Mouse in his eighth film, 1944's The Wreck of the Hesperus, and the character went on to star in 80 theatrical shorts, concluding in 1961 with Cat Alarm.

<i>The Witches</i> (novel) 1983 childrens book by Roald Dahl

The Witches is a 1983 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. A dark fantasy, the story is set partly in Norway and partly in England, and features the experiences of a young English boy and his Norwegian grandmother in a world where child-hating societies of witches secretly exist in every country. The witches are ruled by the vicious and powerful Grand High Witch, who arrives in England to organise her plan to turn all of the children there into mice.

<i>The Wide Window</i> 2000 childrens novel

Book the Third: The Wide Window is the third novel of the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. In this novel, the Baudelaire orphans live with their aunt Josephine, who is seemingly scared of everything. The book was published on February 25, 2000 by HarperCollins and illustrated by Brett Helquist.

"A Report to an Academy" is a short story by Franz Kafka, written and published in 1917. In the story, an ape named Red Peter, who has learned to behave like a human, presents to an academy the story of how he effected his transformation. The story was first published by Martin Buber in the German monthly Der Jude, along with another of Kafka's stories, "Jackals and Arabs". The story appeared again in a 1919 collection titled Ein Landarzt.

<i>Gathering Blue</i> 2000 novel by Lois Lowry

Gathering Blue is a young adult-dystopian novel written by Lois Lowry and was published on September 25, 2000. A companion book to The Giver (1993), it is set in the same future time period and universe, treats some of the same themes, and is followed by Messenger (2004) and Son (2012) in The Giver Quartet.

<i>Josephine Mutzenbacher</i> Austrian novel

Josephine Mutzenbacher or The Story of a Viennese Whore, as Told by Herself is an erotic novel first published anonymously in Vienna, Austria, in 1906. The novel is famous in the German-speaking world, having been in print in both German and English for over 100 years and sold over 3 million copies, becoming an erotic bestseller.

<i>Anti-Oedipus</i> 1972 book by Deleuze and Guattari

Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia is a 1972 book by French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the former a philosopher and the latter a psychoanalyst. It is the first volume of their collaborative work Capitalism and Schizophrenia, the second being A Thousand Plateaus (1980).

"The Burrow" is an unfinished short story by Franz Kafka written six months before his death. In the story a badger-like creature struggles to secure the labyrinthine burrow he has excavated as a home. The story was published posthumously in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer by Max Brod, Kafka's friend and literary executor. The first English translation, by Willa and Edwin Muir, was published by Martin Secker in London in 1933. It appeared in The Great Wall of China. Stories and Reflections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lion and the Mouse</span> Aesops fable

The Lion and the Mouse is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 150 in the Perry Index. There are also Eastern variants of the story, all of which demonstrate mutual dependence regardless of size or status. In the Renaissance the fable was provided with a sequel condemning social ambition.

Josephine is a female name. It is the English version of the French name Joséphine, itself a female variant of the name Joseph, which is ultimately derived from the Hebrew name Yosef, meaning "he shall add/grow".

<i>Cinderella II: Dreams Come True</i> 2002 American film

Cinderella II: Dreams Come True is a 2002 American animated direct-to-video fantasy anthology film. It is a sequel to the 1950 film Cinderella. Directed by John Kafka from a screenplay written by Jill E. Blotevogel, Tom Rogers and Julie Selbo, it is the first in the series to use digital ink and paint. It stars the voices of Jennifer Hale, Russi Taylor, Corey Burton, and Rob Paulsen.

Semiotext(e) is an independent publisher of critical theory, fiction, philosophy, art criticism, activist texts and non-fiction.

<i>Contemplation</i> (short story collection) Collection of short stories by Franz Kafka

Betrachtung is a collection of eighteen short stories by Franz Kafka written between 1904 and 1912. It was Kafka's first published book, printed at the end of 1912 in the Rowohlt Verlag on an initiative by Kurt Wolff.

<i>Nutcracker Fantasy</i> 1979 Japanese film

Nutcracker Fantasy is a Japanese-American stop motion animated film produced by Sanrio, very loosely based on Tchaikovsky's 1892 ballet The Nutcracker and E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It is directed by Takeo Nakamura and written by Shintaro Tsuji, Eugene A. Fournier and Thomas Joachim. It was officially released in Japan on March 3, 1979 and later in the United States on July 6, 1979. The film was nominated for the 1980 Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and the 1980 Young Artist Award for Best Motion Picture featuring youth and won the 1980 Young Artist Award for Best Musical Entertainment.

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree is a 1995 Christmas television special starring Robert Downey Jr., Stockard Channing and Leslie Nielsen, featuring Kermit the Frog as a narrator and various other Muppets created exclusively for the special. It was sponsored by Nabisco and originally aired December 6, 1995 on CBS.

<i>A Hunger Artist</i> (short story collection)

A Hunger Artist is the collection of four short stories by Franz Kafka published in Germany in 1924, the last collection that Kafka himself prepared for publication. Kafka was able to correct the proofs during his final illness but the book was published by Verlag Die Schmiede several months after his death.

World War II changed the possibilities for animation. Prior to the war, animation was mostly seen as a form of family entertainment. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a turning point in its utility. On December 8, 1941, the United States Army began working with Walt Disney at his studio, stationing Military personnel there for the duration of the war. The Army and Disney set about making various types of films for several different audiences. Most films meant for the public included some type of propaganda, while films for the troops included training and education about a given topic.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.