Kafka as a Populist:

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Kafka as a Populist: "
Pan, D

Document Type	:	AL
Record Number	:	917459
Doc. No	:	LA3392s4x0
Title & Author	:	Kafka as a Populist:. Re-reading "In the Penal Colony" [Article]\ Pan, D
Date	:	1994
Title of Periodical	:	UC Irvine
Abstract	:	PeculiarityFranz Kafka's "In the Penal Colony " has almost always been read asthe description of a barbaric machine of torture. Yet the first sentence ofthe story, "It's a peculiar kind of apparatus,"1 uttered by the officer, doesnot direct attention to the apparatus itself but to its peculiarity. For the voyagerwho listens to the officer describing the apparatus, the latter is certainlypeculiar as an instrument of torture and execution, but it is alsopeculiar for the officer in the sense that it belongs to a particular culturewhich has created it and supported its functioning. The peculiarity extendsbeyond the machine to the notion of justice of which the apparatus is anintegral part. The story contraposes the two notions of peculiarity in orderto stage a conflict between two cultures, one represented by the liberal,humanitarian voyager and the other embodied in the traditional justice ofthe officer. From the viewpoint of liberal humanitarianism, the apparatus ispeculiar because of its barbarism and must be eradicated. But from the perspectiveof a community in which traditions are still alive, the apparatus'peculiarity lies in the fact that it is part of a cultural system "peculiar to" aspecific community. The story thus presents two modes of justice opposed to each other in the struggle to determine the fate of the apparatus.