Anthony Levings, 'Burgess and Kafka: Second Selves', paper presented at the Second International Anthony Burgess Symposium, Anthony Burgess: Selves and Others, Liverpool Hope University, 26–28 July 2007. Symposium Details
John Keats dreams of F.B. in ABBA ABBA and John B. Wilson, BA writes of a man named K. in The End of the World News. They are initials that echo across time, and though they have other meanings as well, they appear to point a finger towards one of Kafka’s most famous works, The Trial. It is a subtle signpost, and one that highlights the shared indulgence of Burgess and Kafka for self-insertion into their novels as second selves. By examining models from the recent work of Frédéric Regard on Burgess’s biography of Shakespeare, the paper demonstrates how the apparent simplicity of inserting autobiographical elements into ABBA ABBA, in particular, is an acknowledgement that the self has an undeniable influence on the interpretation of histories, and cannot be held apart from them. In doing so the paper demonstrates how Burgess not only moulds Keats in the novel but also how the poems of Belli are changed as well in line with the author’s own preoccupations.
