Introduction: narration and narratives in Kafka -- Progression, speed, and judgment in Kafka's "Das urteil" / The human body and the human being in "Die verwandlung" / "Lightning no longer flashes": Kafka's Chinese voice and the thunder of the great war / The abandoned writing desk: on Kafka's metanarratives, as exemplified by "Der heizer" / Therese's story in "Der verschollene" / The sense of an un-ending: the resistance to narrative closure in Kafka's "Das schloss" / Starting in the middle? complications of narrative beginnings and progression in Kafka / The narrative beginning of Kafka's "In der strafkolonie" / Musical indirections in Kafka's "Forschungen eines hundes" / The dynamics of narration in betrachtung: "Das urteil," and Kafka's reflections on writing