Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature by Gilles Deleuze
In this classic of critical thought, Deleuze and Guattari challenge conventional interpretations of Kafka's work. Instead of exploring preexisting categories or literary genres, they propose a concept of minor literature-the use of a major language that subverts it from within. Writing as a Jew in Prague, they contend, Kafka made German take flight on a line of escape and joyfully became a stranger within it. His work therefore serves as a model for understanding all critical language that must operate within the confines of the dominant language and culture.