Minimalistische Reduktionen des Textes bis hin zu nur noch einem Satz bieten ästhetische und ethische Differenzierungen, die hier in einem weiten kulturgeschichtlichen Rahmen präsentiert werden. Der Spruch im Alten Testament, die Fragmente Heraklits oder die Aphorismen von Kafka, die Maximen der Moralisten und das japanische Haiku - sie alle sind Experimente knappster Verdichtung, die sich gerade deshalb als zeitresistent erwiesen haben. Gleichwohl setzt die Linguistik die Textgröße oftmals erst oberhalb des Einzelsatzes an. Der Band versammelt ein weites Spektrum von Beiträgen (...) aus Philosophie, Theologie, Soziologie, Sprach-, Literatur- und Musikwissenschaft zu einem interdisziplinären, vielstimmigen Gespräch - über die Grenzen der Kulturen wie der Zeiten hinweg. Gebündelt sind diese Beobachtungen im Stichwort der Nanotextualität, um die Effizienz extremer Konzentration in ästhetischen, ethischen und logischen Konsequenzen zu vergleichen. (shrink)

Franz Kafka and Michel Foucault: Power, Resistance, and the Art of Self-Creation is applicable to undergraduates, graduate students, and academic researchers interested in modern and postmodern political theory, politics, and literary criticism. Specifically, this book engages important themes such as power, language, subjectivity and the possibility of fully developed postmodern account of the subject, resistance to power, and an aesthetic interpretation of life.

Milan Kundera and Franz Kafka - How Not to Forget Everydayness Purpose of the article is to show that while in fundamental constitutional questions we are still attentive to our past, in everyday legal cases we can forget more likely. In my opinion, in case of the post-communist countries it is very dangerous to forget the Past because we have nothing other than our memories. To forget means either to be exposited the danger of return to the system as (...) it was or to transform our legal praxis into a depersonalized system.Methodology/methods In this article I want to analyze two decisions of Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic and compare them with situation described in early works of Milan Kundera. His work reflecting the past everydayness in communist Czechoslovakia can be used as a good example of the analyses of forgetting. Very similar inspirations we can find in work of Franz Kafka or even better in Milan Kundera's interpretation of Kafka's work. The scientific aim of this article is to show that although the literature represents different conception of knowledge when this knowledge is compared with legal knowledge we can gain parallels that describe the law rooted in culture and society.Conclusions of this article show that on one side we face reminding of our Past in decisions regarding politically considerable cases. On the other side we face the oblivion: In cases at constitutional level dealing with everydayness in legal praxis we can find rather shift to formal interpretation without any reference to our past. The result can be Kafkaesque legal system without any signs of living people. (shrink)

Den Themenkomplexen um Körper und Körperlichkeit in Franz Kafkas OEuvre wird in der literaturwissenschaftlichen Forschung ein hohes Maß an Bedeutung zugesprochen. Dieser Forschungsperspektive liegt in erster Linie die Beobachtung zugrunde, dass literarische Texte des beginnenden 20. Jahrhunderts im Allgemeinen und diejenigen Kafkas im Besonderen die Körperlichkeit menschlicher Existenz auf eine solche Weise in den Vordergrund rücken, dass die ursprüngliche Distinktion von Text- und Körperwirklichkeit dem Zerfall ausgesetzt wird.

El presente trabajo propone determinadas aproximaciones iusfilosóficas al discurso jurídico, a partir de los estudios realizados por Walter Benjamin sobre Franz Kafka. La investigación se realiza con las herramientas metodológicas que aportan las “teorías críticas del derecho” y los marcos teóricos que indagan la relación “derecho-literatura”. Los textos, discusiones y apuntes realizados por el pensador alemán permiten movilizar un análisis de determinados tópicos y categorías pertenecientes al espacio jurídico. Las investigaciones que realiza en torno a la figura de Kafka (...) ofrecen insumos para indagar la formación, despliegue y conservación del derecho. Desde la obra kafkiana, Benjamin visibiliza y desarticula los conceptos nodales de justicia, ley, poder y violencia, lo que permite dar cuenta de los mecanismos y dispositivos que hacen posible el sustento mitológico del derecho. (shrink)

Michel Surya revient, dans l’entretien qu’il a accordé aux Cahiers philosophiques de Strasbourg, sur sa lecture de Kafka : sur les différentes étapes qu’elle a traversées au fil des œuvres, sur les différentes hypothèses auxquelles elle a donné naissance. À partir de plusieurs thématiques (pourquoi la honte semble-t-elle revenir sans cesse chez Kafka? En quoi peut-on dire qu’il y a dans ses textes une pensée de l’histoire qui est à l’œuvre, et comment celle-ci s’inscrit-elle dans une histoire de la taupe (...) et du souterrain en littérature? Que donne à penser la métamorphose, comme texte et comme processus, de ce que devient l’homme au xxe siècle?, etc.), Michel Surya continue de lire Kafka – si c’est en philosophe ou non, cela fait problème, et c’est précisément l’un de ceux qu’aborde cet entretien. 291-303. (shrink)

El mal ejercicio del poder suele llevar de la mano la falta de libertad de los otros, la lucha por la misma y el sufrimiento humano. Muchos salen mal parados de la experiencia, sufren patologías psicológicas durante años y no son ya capaces de amar y contribuir al bien común. La literatura y las artes ha ayudado siempre a sublimar el dolor y han proporcionado la expresión de la transmisión de los últimos pensamientos de las personas que vivieron las situaciones (...) extremas a las que condice la sed de poder -como las guerras- o el autoritarismo sufrido bien en un espacio público, bien en el seno la propia familia. La lectura de Kafka y la muñeca viajera, de Jordi Sierra y Fabra nos ofrece un testimonio narrativo-poético de todo ello. (shrink)

There is a narrow thread in the vast literature on Kafka which pertains to Kafka’s knowledge of philosophy, and more precisely to Kafka’s use in his fictional writings of some of the main ideas of Franz Brentano. Kafka attended courses in philosophy at the Charles University given by Brentano’s students Anton Marty and Christian von Ehrenfels, and was for several years a member of a discussion-group organized by orthodox adherents of the Brentanian philosophy in Prague. The present essay summarizes (...) what is known about Kafka’s relations to the Brentanist movement. It draws on Brentanian ideas on the evidence of inner perception, on oblique consciousness, on active introspection, on correct and incorrect judgment, and on consciousness as a species of inner tribunal, in order to throw light on central features of Kafka’s writings, including stylistic features. Special attention is directed towards Die Verwandlung and Der Prozess, and a reading of the latter is offered according to which the trial of Joseph K. occurs entirely within the mind of K. himself. The revisions in the 1997 version of the paper relate especially to the treatment of Kafka and Brentano in Arnold Heidsieck’s book The Intellectual Contexts of Kafka’s Fiction: Philosophy, Law, Religion, of 1994. (shrink)

The ideas of Jewish Messianism and libertarian utopia hold a decisive place in the work of Franz Kafka and while it is possible to recognise the selective tendency which links them, their orientation derives from radical negativity. The sympathy for libertarian utopianism which led Kafka to become involved in the activities of Prague anarchist circles in 1919-1922 did not take on the same form in his novels and short stories. In them it is purely negative, a critique of a (...) world devoid of freedom, of the meticulous absurd and arbitrary logic of some all-powerful "apparatus". The structural homology with "negative theology" is striking: in both cases the positive reverse of the established world - a libertarian utopia or messianic redemption - is totally lacking and it is this absence that defines the life of people as fallen, lost or devoid of meaning. The subconscious selective tendency between the two "negative" configurations leads to a convergence which can be seen in the structure of the novels (The Trial, The Castle) and short stories: this is what the crushing of the individual and the total refutation of freedom indicates - the redemption of the world. (shrink)

The European Legacy, Volume 17, Issue 5, Page 707-708, August 2012.

This essay examines the anti-producing human body in its limit case of public self-induced starvation, as figured in Franz Kafka's short story ‘A Hunger Artist’ and Steve McQueen's film Hunger. Both works represent the fasting body as hollowed out, a resistance to capitalist-spectator capture that spatialises itself as a smoothing, a relative reconfiguration of parts to whole through the evacuation of flows. In both works the human body becomes a local body without organs, paradoxically disarticulated from the more complex (...) assemblages that constitute it while recording potential circuits of disturbance or resonance predicated upon the porousness of bodily boundaries. (shrink)

“Walter Benjamin, Reader of Kafka: Study, Oblivion and Justice”. In this paper we propose to explore an aspect of Franz Kafka. On the Tenth Anniversary of his Death, an essay that Walter Benjamin wrote in 1934 for the Jüdische Rundschau, and to investigate an idea that does not develop there in extenso: the “study”. Throughout the text, we find that Benjamin relates this idea with two other concepts: first, he argues that study is opposed to “oblivion”, and, on the (...) other hand, links study with the notion of justice. In this way, both characterizations seem to coexist in the essay about Kafka, without the author developing them in depth. The objective of this work is, then, to delve into each of them in order to clarify how Benjamin conceives the study so that it can be associated with both a struggle against oblivion and with justice. (shrink)

Through an analysis of Kafka's "Before the Law," Vardoulakis considers both various philosophical responses to Kafka's story and philosophical conceptions of the law. In particular, Vardoulakis suggests an affinity between Kafka and Spinoza's conceptions of the law.

Partimos dos eixos propostos por José Carlos Barcellos no artigo “Literatura e teologia” para enquadrar a fortuna crítica que se elevou em torno de Franz Kafka quanto à relação entre sua literatura e a temática religiosa. O primeiro eixo lida com a perspectiva de que a literatura se apresente como uma teologia não teórica, nele analisamos a configuração de Kafka como um cabalista de acordo com Scholem. No segundo, sob a ótica de que a teologia está presente na literatura, (...) observamos a crítica de Anders aos investimentos apologistas que diagnosticam em Kafka uma teologia positiva. O terceiro eixo enfoca a literatura como “lugar teológico” e por ele discutimos com Brod e Moller sobre a possibilidade de visualizar a literatura de Kafka como signatária da mesma esperança que se encontra nestes analistas. Já o quarto eixo trata de uma interpretação mais focada no aspecto humano, assim como a leitura interpretativa de Heller. Por último é apresentado o método da analogia estrutural de Kuschel como uma possibilidade de respeitar as peculiaridades de cada uma das áreas envolvidas. Por meio deste levantamento procuramos defender a manutenção da tensão entre literatura e religião como a melhor forma de respeitar tanto uma quanto a outra. Palavras-chave: Literatura. Religião. Teologia. Franz Kafka. José Carlos Barcellos.We assumed the positions proposed by José Carlos Barcellos in the article “Literature and theology” to frame the criticism which revolves Franz Kafka and the relation between his literature and religion. The first position deals with the perspective which considers literature as a non-theoretical theology. Based on that, we analyze the configuration of Kafka as a cabalist, according to Shcolem. In the second position, under the point of view that theology is present in literature, we observed Ander’s criticism of the apologist investments which diagnosed a positive theology in Kafka. The third aspect focuses on literature as a “theological place”, and based on it we discuss with Brod and Moller about the possibility of seeing Kafka’s literature as holder of the same hope found on those analysts. The fourth point approaches an interpretation focused on the human aspect, as Heller’s interpretative reading. Finally, it is presented Kuschel’s method of structural analogy as a possibility of respecting the peculiarities of each area involved. Through this survey we tried to defend the maintenance of the tension between literature and religion as the best way to respect both of them. Keywords : Literature. Religion. Theology. Franz Kafka. José Carlos Barcellos. - DOI: 10.5752/P.2175-5841.2012v10n25p157. (shrink)

Pretende-se explorar alguns aspectos da obra de Franz Kafka que vinculam as experiências do escritor às experiências do homem das grandes cidades modernas, e, por outro lado, colocam essas mesmas experiências “sob violenta tensão em relação às místicas”. Alguns elementos da obra de Kafka, como a impessoalidade, o anonimato, os inúmeros corredores ou repartições sufocantes, representam um diagnóstico, tido muitas vezes como sombrio, mas essencialmente crítico da modernidade. A partir da parábola Diante da Lei, inserida no romance O Processo (...) e contada ao protagonista como uma forma de ligar sua experiência à tradição, procurar-se-á discutir tanto o papel da crítica à modernidade como o papel desempenhado pela tradição (a teologia judaica), além das noções de culpa e lei, natural e sobrenatural. (shrink)

It explains the importance of the concept of freedom in Kafka's work.

Die Lücke in der Zeit: Agamben und Arendt -- Wie Sonntagskinder: Agamben und Benjamin -- Als ob nicht: Agamben und Kafka.

In this article, I examine whether the concept of testimony can be used in order to clarify the epistemological value of literary fiction. It seems that it cannot: a testimony can be wrong while it makes no sense to say that a literary fiction can be wrong. However, in the wake of a hermeneutic philosophy, the fictional story has often been qualified as a testimony of an experience, even in cases which are not merely autobiographical. I try to unravel this (...) paradoxical connection between literary fiction and testimony. Starting from an examination of Kafka’s short story “Metamorphosis”, I intend to articulate the distinction between literary fiction and testimony, on the one hand and on the other, to understand the importance of the perspective of the witness in literary fiction. The main argument for both statements is given by an analysis of the visibility in literary fiction. (shrink)

This article is an attempt at a ‘political’ reading of Kafka’s The Castle, as an ironical, radical critique - from a libertarian perspective - of the despotism of the modern bureaucratic apparatus. This reading is not self-evident. Like all Kafka’s unfinished novels, Das Schloss is a strange and fascinating literary document that creates perplexity and inspires various contradictory and/or dissonant interpretations. And like The Trial it has been the object of very many religious and theological readings. Michael Löwy concludes by (...) arguing that commentators have neglected the character of Amalia, one of the most impressive female figures in Kafka’s work, who is at the heart of the libertarian individualism of the Prague writer. (shrink)

Drawing upon the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, in particular their writing on Franz Kafka, this article stakes out the ground for a creative critical writing practice beyond the confines of literature. Exploring the notion of writing in relation to affect constellations, what causes one to write, and expressions without content, how one begins to write, the argument put forth is that in rethinking the distinction Deleuze and Guattari tend to make between artistic practice and philosophical thought, (...) a space is opened up for transversal lines that may cross between these fields in practices that are creative and critical and involve what Deleuze and Guattari refer to as aesthetic figures as well as conceptual personae. These practices, it is argued, provide a potential link between aesthetics, on the one hand, and ethics and politics, on the other. (shrink)