A Visit to a Mine

Short story by Franz Kafka

"A Visit to a Mine" (German: "Ein Besuch im Bergwerk") is a short story by Franz Kafka. The story is told by a narrator who is planning the drilling of a mine. It opens with orders from above to the workers around the mine. The narrator details the elaborate rank and file system among the workers. There are ten engineers and nine of them have specified functions. For example, one measures the area of the tunnel, while another follows him, preparing to drill. There is a suggestion that within the bureaucratic structure there is a lack of efficiency. At least one engineer serves to answer the question that "another does not want to ask."^[1] The story ends with the narrator and the other engineers, taking notes, inspecting, and measuring.

At least one author has pointed to similarities between this story and Freudian analysis, interpreting each character as representing the various states of unconscious desires.^[2]

References

^ The Penal Colony: Stories and Short Pieces. Franz Kafka, 1948.
^ "Kafka's 'A Visit to a Mine': The Literary Path to a Freudian View of Identification." M. Wasserman. Neohelicon, 1998. Available at akkrt.metapress.com

Franz Kafka (works)

Novels

The Trial
The Castle
Amerika

Short stories

1902–1912	"Shamefaced Lanky and Impure in Heart" "Description of a Struggle" "Wedding Preparations in the Country" "The Judgment" "The Stoker" The Metamorphosis "The Aeroplanes at Brescia"
1914–1917	"In the Penal Colony" "The Village Schoolmaster" "Before the Law" "Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" "A Country Doctor" "The Hunter Gracchus" "The Great Wall of China" "A Message from the Emperor" "A Report to an Academy" "A Dream" "Up in the Gallery" "A Fratricide" "The Next Village" "A Visit to a Mine" "Jackals and Arabs" "The Bridge" "The Bucket Rider" "The New Advocate" "An Old Manuscript" "The Knock at the Manor Gate" "Eleven Sons" "My Neighbor" "A Crossbreed" "The Cares of a Family Man"
1917–1923	"The Refusal" "A Hunger Artist" "Investigations of a Dog" "A Little Woman" "The Burrow" "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk" "A Common Confusion" "The Truth about Sancho Panza" "The Silence of the Sirens" "Prometheus" "The City Coat of Arms" "Poseidon" "Fellowship" "At Night" "The Problem of Our Laws" "The Conscription of Troops" "The Test" "The Vulture" "The Helmsman" "The Top" "A Little Fable" "Homecoming" "First Sorrow" "The Departure" "Advocates" "The Married Couple" "Give It Up!" "On Parables"