美国 (1927)

《美国》（Amerika），或称《失踪者》（The Man Who Disappeared和The Missing Person，德语：Der Verschollene），是法兰兹·卡夫卡所著、在德国出版的未完成长篇德语小说，1927年初版。

情节

卡尔·罗斯曼出身德国的一个富裕家庭，16岁时被女仆引诱生下一子，结果被父母放逐至美国。卡尔在纽约港码头认识了司炉，并为司炉受上司欺侮的事不平。这时自称卡尔舅舅的雅考伯出现，将其接至家中。他请人教卡尔钢琴，还让他与纨绔子弟马克练骑马。一次雅考伯与波隆德谈生意，后者喜欢卡尔，便引卡尔至自己别墅。在那儿他认识了克拉拉，在玩耍中克拉拉倒在卡尔怀中，莫名的大叫起来。卡尔迷惘中遇见老翁，后者称克拉拉是马克的未婚妻。卡尔弹了会钢琴后回到雅考伯家，却被宣布触犯家规，再次被逐。

卡尔在路上认识了爱尔兰人罗宾逊和法国人德拉马什。晚上卡尔给罗宾逊和德拉马什送啤酒，发现箱子和钱包被他们翻乱，便与他们分手。后来，卡尔被西方饭店雇佣开电梯，认识了打字员苔莱斯，苔莱斯向卡尔诉苦。罗宾逊找来饭店，要与卡尔同住，被拒。但卡尔为了替罗宾逊付饭钱擅离职守，被饭店老板开除。

卡尔租车来到纽约市郊，警察要求他出示证件。德拉马什掩护了卡尔，结果卡尔再次落入两个流氓手中。两人命令卡尔作仆人，卡尔不从，被多次殴打，逃跑也没能成功。这时来了个大学生，他虽然恨德拉马什，但劝卡尔继续待下去……

Amerika (German working title Der Verschollene, "The Missing"), also known as The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika), Amerika: The Missing Person and Lost in America, is the incomplete first novel by Franz Kafka (1883–1924), written between 1911 and 1914 and published posthumously in 1927. The novel began as a short story titled "The Stoker". The novel incorporates many details of the experiences of Kafka's relatives who had emigrated to the United States. The commonly used title Amerika is from the edition of the text put together by Kafka's close friend, Max Brod, after Kafka's death in 1924. It has been published in several English-language versions, including as Amerika, translated by Edwin and Willa Muir (1938); as The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika), translated by Michael Hofmann (1996); as Amerika: The Missing Person, translated by Mark Harman (2008); as Lost in America, translated by Anthony Northey (2010); and as The Man Who Disappeared (America), translated by Ritchie Robertson (2012).

Plot summary

The first chapter of this novel is a short story titled "The Stoker".

The story describes the bizarre wanderings of sixteen-year-old European immigrant Karl Roßmann (Rossmann), who was forced to go to New York City to escape the scandal of getting a housemaid pregnant. As the ship arrives in the United States, he becomes friends with a stoker who is about to be dismissed from his job. Karl identifies with the stoker and decides to help him; together they go to see the captain of the ship. In a surreal turn of events, Karl's uncle, Senator Jacob, is in a meeting with the captain. Karl does not know that Senator Jacob is his uncle, but Mr. Jacob recognizes him and takes him away from the stoker.

Karl stays with his uncle for some time but is later abandoned by him after making a visit to his uncle's friend without his uncle's full approval. Wandering aimlessly, he becomes friends with two drifters named Robinson and Delamarche. They promise to find him a job, but they sell his suit without permission, eat his food in front of him without offering him any, and ransack his belongings. Finally, Karl departs from them on bad terms after he's offered a job by a manager at Hotel Occidental. He works there as a lift-boy. One day Robinson shows up drunk at his work asking him for money. Afraid of losing his job if seen talking with a friend, which is forbidden for lift-boys, Karl agrees to lend him money, then commits the far worse offence of bunking a drunk-sick Robinson in the lift-boy dorm.

Being dismissed for leaving his post, Karl agrees not only to pay for Robinson's taxi, but also joins him. They travel to Delamarche's place. Delamarche is now staying with a wealthy and obese lady named Brunelda. She wants to take in Karl as her servant. Karl refuses, but Delamarche physically forces him to stay and he is imprisoned in her apartment. He tries to break out, but is beaten by Delamarche and Robinson. On the balcony, he chats with a student who tells him he should stay, because it is hard to find a job elsewhere. He decides to stay.

One day he sees an advertisement for the Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, which is looking for employees. The theatre promises to find employment for everyone. Karl applies for a job and gets engaged as a "technical worker". He is then sent to Oklahoma by train and is welcomed by the vastness of the valleys and adopts the name "Negro" as his own.

Uncertainties

Title

In conversations Kafka used to refer to this book as his "American novel", later he called it simply The Stoker, after the title of the first chapter, which appeared separately in 1913. Kafka's working title was The Man Who Disappeared (Der Verschollene). The title Amerika was chosen by Kafka's literary executor, Max Brod, who assembled the uncompleted manuscript and published it after his death. Brod donated the manuscript to the University of Oxford.