H’arut: A Jewish Reading of Kafka’s In the Penal Colony
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Eli Schonfeld
Abstract
This article offers a close reading of Kafka’s In the Penal Colony, exploring the text as a radical reflection on the nature of modernity in general, and Jewish modernity in particular. The article posits that In the Penal Colony is a meditation on the relation between suffering, transgression and law. For Kafka, where modernity is understood as the incapacity of linking suffering and transgression (sin), the old order is one where the relationship between suffering and transgression is understood as fundamental, and functions as a principle of readability of reality. For the ancients, it is this readability that endows the law with meaning and validity. By integrating parts of Foucault’s thesis’ on modernity as elaborated in Discipline and Punish with this analysis of In the Penal Colony, this article situates Kafka’s text in the context of his literature in general, positing that it is the key text to understanding his oeuvre. In addition, this article offers an original reflection on one of the hidden themes of Kafka’s work: the crisis of the modern Jew.
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Special Section: Stéphane Mosès and the Invention of German Jewish Modernity
- Stéphane Mosès after the Holocaust
- Stéphane Mosès’ Angels
- Stéphane Mosès’ Hope
- Stéphane Mosès – Le Passeur Among the Ruins
- A German-Jewish Existence: Stéphane Mosès and the Establishment of German Literature Studies at the Hebrew University
- Widerruf: “Revocation” – On Hans Mayer and Stéphane Mosès
- Narrentum and Being-Jewish: Kafka and Benjamin
- “This Nothing of a Voice”: Kafka’s Josefine Narrative as a Modern Reflection on Revelation and Language
- H’arut: A Jewish Reading of Kafka’s In the Penal Colony
- Other Contributions
- Diskurse protestantischer Hebraisten der Frühen Neuzeit über jüdische Kommunikationsformeln
- Addendum: Scholem on Meeting Gordin in Paris in 1946
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Special Section: Stéphane Mosès and the Invention of German Jewish Modernity
- Stéphane Mosès after the Holocaust
- Stéphane Mosès’ Angels
- Stéphane Mosès’ Hope
- Stéphane Mosès – Le Passeur Among the Ruins
- A German-Jewish Existence: Stéphane Mosès and the Establishment of German Literature Studies at the Hebrew University
- Widerruf: “Revocation” – On Hans Mayer and Stéphane Mosès
- Narrentum and Being-Jewish: Kafka and Benjamin
- “This Nothing of a Voice”: Kafka’s Josefine Narrative as a Modern Reflection on Revelation and Language
- H’arut: A Jewish Reading of Kafka’s In the Penal Colony
- Other Contributions
- Diskurse protestantischer Hebraisten der Frühen Neuzeit über jüdische Kommunikationsformeln
- Addendum: Scholem on Meeting Gordin in Paris in 1946
