Kafka's The Trial gets a fair hearing on campus, in town

By Franklin Crawford

Cornell's fourth annual New Student Reading Project rolls out Sunday, Aug. 22, at 3:30 p.m., when more than 3,100 first-year students are scheduled to gather in Barton Hall for an interactive faculty presentation on Franz Kafka's The Trial. The event will be broadcast live on Time Warner Cable Channel 16.

On Monday, Aug. 23, Cornell students, led by administrators, faculty members, graduate students and staff, will meet in 230 groups across campus to discuss Kafka's prescient work. More than 20,000 Cornell alumni from 23 classes also are involved in the Kafka reading project. For campus and alumni readings and related events, visit Cornell's reading project Web site at http://reading.cornell.edu/.

Cornell faculty panelists for the Barton Hall discussion include: David Bathrick, J.G. Schurman Professor of Theater, Film and Dance, and professor of German Studies; Cindy Hazan, associate professor of human development and newly appointed dean of West Campus' Carl Becker House; and Faust Rossi, the S.S. Leibowitz Professor of Trial Techniques. Provost Biddy Martin will moderate.

Bathrick will address The Trial from cultural and literary perspectives, while Hazan will take on the author as her subject, discussing psychological and personal aspects of Kafka's life. Rossi will discuss legal issues raised in Kafka's harrowing novel, written in 1914 -- the same year Barton Hall was built.

In addition, Cornell Cinema will offer two screenings of Orson Welles' movie "The Trial," at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 24, and 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 27. Freshmen will be admitted at a discounted price.

The New Student Reading Project is overseen by Martin and Isaac Kramnick, vice provost for academic programs and institutional initiatives. Cornellians have been reading a special Cornell edition of the text, translated by Mitchell Breon and published by Schocken Books.

For the third year running, Ithaca-area residents and local high school students are joining in Cornell's reading project. In July, Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson proclaimed 2004 the year of "Ithaca Reads The Trial: A Cornell-Community Collaboration," and Common Council approved a resolution to that effect Aug. 4. The town-gown enterprise is sponsored by Cornell and the Tompkins County Public Library.

Kramnick said the town-gown connection, established beginning with the Frankenstein New Student Reading Project in 2002-03, is becoming a tradition. This year, Cornell gave more than 1,100 copies of The Trial to the Tompkins County Public Library. The books will be distributed to 10th-grade students throughout the county; and copies also have been made available for library reading groups and community members.

In addition to book club readings sponsored by the library, Cornell is funding a "mayor's prize" for the best high school student essays on The Trial. Three prizes totaling $300 will be distributed as gift certificates to a local bookstore. Winners will be announced in November. The Tompkins County Bar Association will hold a public debate on themes related to The Trial, and in an effort to expand on the notion of "community read," Cornell faculty and students are involved in plans to bring The Trial to Auburn Correctional Facility.

For a list of community events, visit the county library's Web site at http://www.tcpl.org/trial/events.html.