Can literary works be great if they don't revise or converse

>>8954212
It's all relative, newfriend.

>>8954212
I think so. Kafka is great and doesn't

>>8954218
>I think so. Kafka is great and doesn't
>referring to Kafka in the present tense

Pleb detected. Also, he made various references to Greek mythology and the Bible, kiddo.

>>8954216
>newfriend
What? I hope it's not because of the Blood Meridian pic.

It's impossible to have lived in the West and write something independent of the canon.

Implying Blood Meridian doesn't converse with the canon?

>>8954234
John Green's book A Fault In Our Stars alludes to Shakespeare but it doesn't actively participate in a conversation with Shakespeare's works.
>>8954244
No, it's an example of a book that does it extremely well, but you shouldn't have to be told this.

>>8954224
It's called literary present tense. Also, a few allusions does not a significant conversation make. Kafka's works are almost entirely unique (inb4 Walser) and can't be said to be heavily influenced by any writer before him or conversing with the canon significantly.

Although really you could say he REVISED the canon, because a lot of authors after him have followed in his stead with "Kafkaesque" situations and dark humor, making their characters in cardboard caricatures in a dark universe. The postmodernists got a lot from Kafka in terms from tone I think.

>>8954253
What constitutes a conversation?

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>>8954332
Kafka was heavily influenced by the like of Dostoevsky (whom he called his blood brother), Hogol, some German writers I can't name offhand, etc.

>>8954354
K. Now compare his writings to Dostoyevsky's, Gogol's, and Kleist's (a German he was influenced by). They may have profoundly impacted him, but his works are totally unique and dissimilar from theirs.

Really I'm being clever because I know what Kafka's stories are most similar to are traditional Jewish texts, tales, jokes and parables

Anyway, yeah, I'd say no work can exist in a vacuum in response to the OP, works feed off of other works, though some works like Kafka's can appear very unique.

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>>8954212
uhh blood meridian communicates with the canon very well, see: the bible, paradise lost, american western mythology, and moby dick.

>>8954421
>moby dick
>canon

>>8954365
>K.

What about him?