Kafka and Philosophy

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:

Concessionary fees for short courses

This course will give participants the opportunity to engage in detail with Kafka's literary writings and to assess what philosophers have made of them.

Course objectives:

• To examine and evaluate the formal and thematic qualities of Kafka's literary writings.
• To investigate the philosophical dimensions and aspects of Kafka's literary writings.
• To assess the interpretations of Kafka made by a range of philosophers, both in respect of the insights they provide into Kafka and also as ways into their own philosophical positions.

Weeks 1 and 6-10 will feature lectures followed by discussion; weeks 2-4 will be seminars, each opening with a short introduction by the tutor on the week’s text and theme, followed by orchestrated group discussions and short student presentations. Electronic presentations will be used and made available to students in advance in a variety of formats.  Extracts from secondary literature, specifically texts by the philosophers we will be considering, will be provided in class.  Students will be able to benefit from formative feedback on written work during the course.

By the end of the course students will be expected to:

• demonstrate knowledge of and insight into Kafka’s main works;
• analyse and assess claims about the philosophical significance of Kafka’s writings;
• demonstrate familiarity with a range of philosophical interpretations of Kafka’s texts.

Participants will be given four short exercises during the course to complete (up to 500 words each).  The tutor will assess and provide written comments on completed exercises. Students will be able to do all four short exercises.

Students can choose to be assessed for the course EITHER on the basis of THREE completed short exercises OR by submitting an essay of 1,500 words on a chosen topic from the course (suggested questions will be provided during the course). Those choosing to write an essay can submit a 500 word draft for feedback in advance of submitting the final version or can use one of the short exercises for the same purpose.

Coursework is an integral part of all weekly classes and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework in order to benefit fully from the course. Only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work of the required standard.

Students must submit a completed Declaration of Authorship form at the end of term when submitting your final piece of work. CATS points cannot be awarded without the aforementioned form - Declaration of Authorship form

The Department's Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, i.e. first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.

Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS)

To earn credit (CATS points) you will need to register and pay an additional £30 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. Students who register for CATS points will receive a Record of CATS points on successful completion of their course assessment.

Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process can either register for CATS points prior to the start of their course or retrospectively from the January 1st after the current full academic year has been completed. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.