The Hunter Gracchus

"The Hunter Gracchus" (German: "Der Jäger Gracchus") is a short story by Franz Kafka. The story presents a boat carrying the long-dead Hunter Gracchus as it arrives at a port. The mayor of Riva meets Gracchus, who gives him an account of his death while hunting, and explains that he is destined to wander aimlessly and eternally over the seas. An additional fragment presents an extended dialogue between Gracchus and an unnamed interviewer, presumably the same mayor.

"The Hunter Gracchus"
AuthorFranz Kafka
Original title"Der Jäger Gracchus"
LanguageGerman
Genre(s)Short story
Published inBeim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Media typebook (hardcover)
Publication date1931
Published in English
  • 1933 (1933) London, Martin Secker
  • 1946 (1946) New York, Schocken Books

Written in the first half of 1917, the story was published posthumously in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (Berlin, 1931). The first English translation, by Willa and Edwin Muir, was published by Martin Secker in London in 1933. It also appeared in The Great Wall of China. Stories and Reflections (New York: Schocken Books, 1946).[1] The story and the fragment both appear in The Complete Stories.[2]

In a diary entry for April 6, 1917, Kafka describes a strange boat standing at port, which he is told belongs to the Hunter Gracchus.[3]

The story is paraphrased in, and its content is interwoven into, the novel Vertigo by W. G. Sebald, as well as in Hélène Cixous's Le Détrônement de la mort.

Notes
  1. The Great Wall of China: Stories and Reflections. Franz Kafka - 1946 - Schocken Books
  2. Kafka, Franz. The Complete Stories. New York: Schocken Books, 1995. p. 226-234.
  3. Kafka, Franz. Diaries 1910-1923. New York: Schocken Books, 1988. p. 373
gollark: We will refer to all bees as apioforms in documentation.
gollark: What if we write even MORE clinically than the SCP people somehow?
gollark: (clinical tone is for BEES or PEOPLE WITH MORE CLINICAL TONE)
gollark: Item ID: SCM-F078C8EEClass: Æφ-77Description: SCM-F078C8EE is a printed photograph of an apioform. It displays no anomalous properties except that an entry about it SOMEHOW APPEARS CONSTANTLY IN THE DATABASE despite many measures taken to lock its slot.
gollark: It's ANOMALOUSLY worthy of classification.
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