The Oxford Kafka Research Centre (https://www.kafka-research.ox.ac.uk/) is delighted to announce that its Undergraduate Kafka Essay Prize competition, which was inaugurated last year to mark the centenary of Kafka’s death, will become an annual event, generously funded by Wadham College alumnus Nigel Jones.
Nigel Jones says: “‘When I saw the Bodleian exhibition marking the centenary of Kafka’s death, I had the idea of sponsoring the prize to celebrate his works, which I enjoyed studying as an undergraduate student of German in the 1980s. Everyone now knows something of Kafka as a cultural icon, but I wanted to offer today’s undergraduate students the opportunity to go back to study the texts in detail and appreciate them for the quality of his writing. Like us, Kafka lived in a period of rapid social, economic, political and technological change, and his insights are just as unsettling and relevant now as they must have been in his own day.”
Carolin Duttlinger, Co-Director of the Oxford Kafka Research Centre, says: “We are hugely grateful to Nigel Jones for this generous gift, which will encourage current and future undergraduates to engage with Kafka’s fascinating works in the context of modern culture. This annual competition is a vital part of our outreach work, which aims to inspire the next generation of Kafka readers and, hopefully, scholars.”
Further details
Promotional poster
