Revista Brasileira de Psicanálise
Print version ISSN 0486-641X
Abstract
KAFKA, Franz. On Kafka's two letters to his sister Elli about children's education.Translated byEnrique Mandelbaum, Belinda Mandelbaum, Eduardo Brito. Rev. bras. psicanál [online]. 2017, vol.51, n.2, pp.119-125. ISSN 0486-641X.
Kafka sets forth his conception of family in two letters he sent to his sister in the autumn of 1921. In these letters, Kafka expresses, under the inspiration of his readings of Gulliver's travels, his opinion about the education of his 10-year- -old nephew. According to Swift, family results from an action of the law of nature and it happens in order to continue and perpetuate the human species. It allows Kafka to present family as an animal organism, which is ruled by an irrational love. Family's educational means are, according to Kafka, tyranny and slavery in all their degrees. That is why he writes his sister that parents should be the last human beings to be entrusted with the education of their own children.
Keywords : Kafka; letters; family; children's education.