(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #244 - Classics of
subversion: Franz Kafka, "The Trial" (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation]
Kafka's The Trial is one of the landmarks of twentieth century literature. By its
political dimension, its report to the government, the law, the authority and
arbitrariness, it also has its place in the "subversion of the Classics." ---- The
protagonist of the trial is Joseph K. He has thirty years. He is single, employed by a
bank. He lives in a boarding house. One day, he gets up, several men were present in his
room. They mean to him being accused, he is put under arrest. Joseph K. tries to find out
why he is charged, but the inspector who heads the men refused to tell him. Arrested but
paradoxically free, the hero tries to know the reasons that led him to be charged. It will
be a waste of the court refuses to tell him why he is judged, nor judge him or even when
he is judged. In addition, all persons to whom it is addressed return him it is not the
court to inform and further that seek to understand the charges plays heavily against him.
All peregrinations of Joseph K. only reinforce this sense of arbitrariness. After a year
without warning, as he begins to internalize the same arbitrary, it is brutally executed
by the emissaries of the court.
The book is beautifully written, prose, its style, strengthens the feeling of
disorientation of the reader against the course of events. Beyond the boat criticism that
may have administrative complexities, The Trial led to question the very foundation of
power and authority. If it is based on rational arguments, ultimately, has only the
arbitrary will of the holder of power, as Kafka shows very well by contradiction. The
desperation of the individual against the impersonal monster that is the state with the
dissolution of the individual responsibilities of officers of it, is portrayed very
vividly. Figuratively and metaphorically, the book exposes the mode of operation of the
modern state, known as "right" as if the cries Joseph K., still full of illusions, when he
learns that he is stopped. Meditating on time at all safe.
Matthijs (AL Montpellier)
Franz Kafka, The Trial , Gallimmard, "Folio Classics", 1987 384 p., 4.5 euros.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Les-Classiques-de-la-subversion,6129
