Call me a literary failure, but I've never actually read any Kafka. Considering his work is referenced by so many modernists and even post modernists, (two genres I particularly enjoy), it is probably high time that I get a handle on his writing and what makes it so unique and comment-worthy. Although most of the textual references I've come across belong to Metamorphosis, this blog has been devoted almost entirely to prose and the novel form. As I have yet to grapple with poetry, we're going to begin with The Trial.
My initial impressions of this text resort to humor; and I'm hoping, without having completed any extensive research on the text itself, that it is intended to be a satire. Josef K, our German protagonist, is in his bedclothes, waiting for his breakfast by two dull and seemingly characterless members of the bureaucracy. When he inquires after his charges, they claim that they are unable to tell him, because they don't know themselves: they are simply errand boys for a greater, more highly informed organization. After they finally present him to an Inspector, whom it would logically seem is the next step up on the information ladder, it seems that the charge is trivial, and still unknown. He is permitted to resume working at the bank, and even allowed to return home without knowing the charge or even any consequences of his actions. His land lady tells him it must not be anything serious, as "it's not in the same way as a thief. If you are arrested as a thief, that's bad" (20).
Because I associate Kafka with Marxism (perhaps naively), I would guess this is a satire on diplomatic process of action. The behavior of the characters seemingly has no purpose, thus highlighting the general confusion and red tape associated with bureaucratic procedures. As an aside, this text reads almost like Waiting for Godot, which is similarly modern, abstract, and unsettling in its lack of reasonable progress.
I highly anticipate the next chapters, when it seems that he will be presented in front of a jury of his peers.
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