Franz Kafka's Ambivalent Notes

"In the diary one finds proof that, even in conditions that today seem unbearable, one lived, looked around and wrote down observations, that this right hand thus moved as it does today…"

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) left instructions: upon his death, all “diaries, manuscripts, letters…sketches, and so on” should be burnt.¹ Kafka also left his papers to the one person he knew would not burn them—his greatest literary advocate, Max Brod.

Deciding to leave his papers to Brod reflects Kafka’s deep ambivalence, according to Ross Benjamin, who rece…