Advocates (short story)

"Advocates" (German: "Fürsprecher") is a prose piece by Franz Kafka, probably written in 1922, but not published until 1936, after Kafka's death. It is a monologue describing the difficulty and the necessity of finding advocates, or people to speak for the narrator (the literal meaning of Fürsprecher).

The narrator tells of his search for advocates, constantly moving in the aisles in which an undefined roar prevails. He often meets old cumbersome women. The narrator does not know whether he is in a courthouse, but he knows he is not in the right place to find advocates. He needs them to defend him against his accusers. He tries to attract a large number of supporters from different groups of the population. The relentless search finds him moving upwards on seemingly endless stairs in a gigantic building, with the steps growing under his feet.

Works by Franz Kafka

Novels

Short stories

1902–12	"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"

1914–17	"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"

1917–23	"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" "Home-Coming" "First Sorrow" "The Departure" "Advocates" "The Married Couple" "Give It Up!" "On Parables"

Short story
collections

Diaries and
notebooks

Letters
and essays

Plays

The Warden of the Tomb

Category

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