WALTER H. SOKEL

After re-reading my comments in prior years in memory of my immortal teacher Walter Sokel, I don't have much new to add except that he is indeed and will always be immortal. His memory I will cherish forever and ever.

I met Walter Sokel some 20+ years ago as a graduate student at Rutgers University. To say the least, we hit it off almost immediately and spent much time together, not only at Rutgers, but also in San Francisco where he was at that time living. We had much in common; above all, as a fellow Jew he shared so many harrowing experiences he had had in the 30s while still in Germany. As a world-renowned scholar he shared with me several of the many insights he had developed during his career. I...

Besides sharing an hour or so with Walter at a nearby coffee shop a year or two before his passing, I was awed by his comments and proofing of my Kafka translation and so in commemoration of his generousity (as well as the depth of his knowledge!) I included excerpts from his masterpiece: Franz Kafka, Tragik und Ironie -- at the conclusion of my 3rd edition: Kafka Unleashed, in particular his insights as regards BEFORE THE LAW.... thus hopefully introducing English only readers to Walter's...

Although 10 years have passed since he left us poor mortals on this earth, Walter Sokel lives on vividly in my memory. He was an inspiring (and demanding) teacher at Columbia in my nascent years in the early 1960s. My reunion with him in NYC decades later remains one of my fondest memories. He insisted on taking me to dinner before he saw "The Flying Dutchman" at the Met Opera. He bestowed upon me two wonderful "degrees," MS (Majestic Semite) and CEP (Cultivated Educated Pirate). His...

I think Walter was in agreement with Kafka when he interprets The Law and Man's true home: The landsman of the legend strives to enter into the Law, whereas the dog´s striving is that the "Law," the absolute is forced to enter into him, right into his waiting jaws!  In Kafka´s Werk guilt and sense {Schuld und Sinn}, punishment and fulfillment are interwoven. Ever greater the guilt, so too is `the sense´ that much closer to truth and purification. Ever the more bitter one´s punishment and...

Here I am, at the age of 80, and find that I am thinking of the course I took from Professor Sokel at Stanford University during the Summer of 1966. I had received my undergraduate degree two years earlier and completed two years as a high school English teacher. I was spending my second summer at Stanford, to re-charge my batteries and do a bit of surfing at Santa Cruz. I was not pursuing a degree.

During the 8-week session, we read only 5 or 6 novels in his course on...

It is of course very sad that Walter Sokel is no longer with us in person, but his scholarly voice is still very much with us, and will continue to do so in the future. His landmark study of Kafka, Tragik und Ironie, remains a inexhaustible treasure trove of inspiring insights that still resonate with today's criticism, and Walter's personality, marked by elegance, extraordinary kindness, and intellectual passion will stay present in the scholarly community's collective memory.

I was very priviledged to have been helped by Walter who, in his ninties, proved to be invaluable in his encouragement with my Kafka translation. The result was the transformation of Essential Kafka into Kafka Unleashed - Stories, Dreams & Visions, including Chapters 11-13 of Walter's tome: F.K. ~ Tragik und Ironie.

Walter is truly immortal. I remain so glad that I told his daughter Shari that certainly she could share at the memorial service his description of yours truly his former Columbia undergraduate student. "You look like a Majestic Semite and a Cultivated Educated Pirate," he exclaimed before he insisted on treating me to dinner at our final meeting, more than 50 years after our previous one. That night Walter was going to see "The Flying Dutchman" at the Met Opera. I will think of him this...