EXCERPT
It is under the auspices of the French League for a Free Palestine that
Jean-Paul Sartre spoke on "Kafka, a Jewish Writer" on May 31 [1947], at the lena
Hall. Instead of what in this case would be the preposterous attempt to perform
a critical evaluation, I will simply mention the impression of awesome power
produced by the lecturer. It is difficult to imagine that anything further could be
added to the literature on Kafka after such a magisterial hour. Probably the only
thing left is to reread his work now that Sartre has rethought it and has revealed
its system to us, simultaneously deftly extracting what Kafka himself didn't, of
course, elaborate and shrewdly evoking what makes his talent escape all classifi-
cation. Everything-the diversity of the rhetoric, the exhaustive analysis, and
even the bodily presence of the thought process-contributed in transforming
this lecture into a self-sufficient and necessary whole or, even better, a perfect
work of art. My clearest duty at present is to summarize faithfully the great
moments of this performance.