Delusions of agency : Kafka, imprisonment, and modern victimhood

Chris Fleming, John O'Carroll

    Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

    Abstract

    In this chapter, we explore the levels of imprisonment in Franz Kafka’s The Trial. These levels include legal arrest, social containment and humiliation, and linguistic entrapment. Our chapter then traces the modernist narrative dream-structure of the novel in order to tease out thematic issues of guilt and innocence. The novel presents its drama in clearly defined domains: the bank, the law, the family, and so on. The tragic action and trajectory of the novel offer an analysis of some key features of modern victimhood. In this respect, the novel as a whole analyzes the modern scapegoat, and does so in terms of victimage within institutional and bureaucratic contexts.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationFreedom and Confinement in Modernity: Kafka’s Cages
    EditorsKiarina Kordela, Dimitris Vardoulakis
    Place of PublicationU.S.
    PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
    Pages29-48
    Number of pages20
    ISBN (Electronic)9780230118959
    ISBN (Print)9780230113428
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2011

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