The kafkaesque machine: the monstrosity in Kafka from Foucauldian analytic of power

Abstract

The narrative of Franz Kafka addresses various philosophical topics essential to Legal Sciences. This paper proposes, as a critical axis for delving into his work, examining the relationship between monstrosity, criminality, punishment and power. A perspective that can be enriched by Michel Foucault’s studies about anomaly and punishment, as discussed in his books Abnormal and Discipline and punish: Birth of the prison. Although the philosopher doesn’t explicitly refer to Kafka’s work in his research his ideas provide a fundamental theoretical-conceptual framework for understanding the ways in which power is exercised, evolves, and perpetuates itself through various socio-legal models. While some scholars that follows Foucault’s ideas might object to the application of his postulates to the literature studies, doctor Paula Fleisner suggests that works such as Kafka’s The trial can be read through a Foucauldian analysis of power, insofar as they fictionally document the transformation of punitive methods, transitioning from the tortured body to the corrected soul. The aim of this paper is to explore how In the penal colony and The trial metaphorise two major phases of the socio-juridical systems in the Western tradition. Through a hermeneutic and comparative analysis, it seeks to establish a relationship of continuity between these Kafka works and Foucault’s approaches of punitive and disciplinary societies from critical analytics of power.