Marx, Kafka and Foreign Languages

Paper Summary:

In this paper, the writer discusses the concepts of a common language and a foreign language. The writer notes that in his 'Communist Manifesto', Karl Marx at one point states that a foreign language is only appropriated by translation. The writer explains that Marx believes that a foreign language only becomes a foreign language when it is identified as being foreign and thus set off from the "normal" or accepted language through the process of foreign language translation. At the same time, in his 'An Introductory Talk on the Yiddish Language', Franz Kafka once described the relationship between the German and Yiddish language as being related in that Yiddish is the only language that allows the Jew to describe their suffering at the hands of the German language. The writer maintains that taken together, what both authors claim is that the act of translating a foreign language is futile in that, within the translation, the concepts or emotions of the words and language becomes lost and thus the result of the translation is a foreign language.

From the Paper:

"According to Marx, language and political or economic power does not intertwine. Take for instance the case of Russia. For centuries the dominant language of Russia has been Russian. This has been the language of all classes of people. Even after the fall of the Czar and the reign of Communist Russia, Russian remained the national language. Likewise, after the fall of the communist regime and the establishment of the Russian Federation, Russian remains the language of the nation.
"However, when the Soviet Union began to colonize the surrounding states, such as the Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, and the nations of Central Asia, part of the plan was to enforce the Russian way of life onto these people and thus make them Russian."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Crumb, R. (1996): Kafka. New York: Kitchen Sink Press, Inc.
• Marx, Karl. (1998): Communist Manifesto. New York: Penguin Group.

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