Post-Apocalyptic Kafka

"The oppressive atmosphere of Kafka's works is caused by the simple fact that in these worlds there is no such thing as a good decision" (Fekete 2020, 163)

Those reading Kafka for the first time may easily begin to perceive the world around them differently. They might become more sensitive to the greyness of bureaucratic conditions or to society’s disregard of common men, but they may sense alienation more intensely as well. The present feels so suffocating in these texts that the reader, involuntarily even, begins to weigh the possibilities of the future. The key concepts in the most influential book by religion-sociologist and philosopher Jacob Taubes,  Occidental Eschatology, reveal the sad fact that the future is in a similarly bleak state in Kafka's texts; that Kafka is a post-apocalyptic writer.

Taubes employs numerous terms - such as thrownness, authentic existence - that regularly appear in interpretations of Kafka. Apocalypse, according to Taubes, is closely connected to the curtainfall, the revelation, the end of the “movement towards something”¹. Therefore, everything that follows this unveiling, and already exists with the experiences caused by the curtainfall, is post-apocalyptic.

For Taubes, thrownness is one of the most important concepts; "this means that man is placed in a situation deprived of the possibility of choice […] left alone in the world of evil, as its prey.”

(Taubes 2009, 60)

The experience of thrownness can be found in numerous novels: the land surveyor in The Castle, Josef K. in The Trial, Gracchus or Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis are all confronted with a world in which they are trapped, and the possibility of escape seems absent.

To live in such a world is - perhaps not an overstatement - to exist in a post-apocalyptic state. In the metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa “[e]verything that once existed has irretrievably disappeared, yet in his inner monologue and his attempts at external communication he is still the same miserable little agent. The apocalypse has taken place, the world is finished, but the routines remain."       

(Farkas 2018)

Similarly alienated, Thrown - by fate - into administrative work, is Poseidon, who is is given platitudinal respect here and there, but this only disturbs the god of the seas even more:

“What annoyed him most - and this was the chief cause of discontent with his job - was to learn of the rumors that were circulating about him; for instance, that he was constantly cruising through the waves with his trident. Instead of which here he was sitting in the depths of the world's ocean endlessly going over the accounts, an occasional journey to Jupiter being the only interruption of the monotony …”

(Kafka 1971, 479)

Poseidon is alienated from his work, his reputation, and his acquaintances. Reading the story, one senses that the apocalypse has already occurred; Poseidon has become a civil servant; the gods are now administrators, only Poseidon has not realised that the apocalypse had already happened a long time ago.

According to Taubes, another cardinal concept of apocalypticism is when: “The paramount question posed in the Apocalypse is when? The question arises from the pressing expectation of redemption, and the obvious answer is soon. Imminence is an essential feature of apocalyptic belief.”

(Taubes 2009, 70)

Kafka's characters, forever waiting for the soon-to-come, appear throughout his works. At the beginning of the short story titled Before the Law², a man arriving from a distant land stops at the gate and asks to be let in. The guard replies that he cannot let him in now. Many years pass while waiting at the gate, when “[t]he doorkeeper recognizes that the man has reached his end, and, to let his failing senses catch the words, roars in his ear: No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it."

(Kafka 1971, 23)

In the story, an entire life passes in constant waiting and hope, with "soon" continually thematizing the fate of the man who has come from afar, but Kafka’s world offers him no solace. A whole life passes by, trickles away, without any answers. The closed gates do not open; there is no passage. Existence is lonely, ugly, and uneventful.

An Imperial Message also grapples with the problem of passage³. However, the ending shows that despite the unveiling, despite the fact that it is completely obvious that the emperor's message – if by some miracle it really existed and he wanted to convey it to his subjects – will not reach the “little man”. However, he dreams of this, and so his life is one of constant waiting, of constant soon, just like the man who came from afar.

The main obstacle in The Castle is also the lack of passage. K. cannot get into the castle at all, and he cannot even find a way to communicate with those inside. According to the official who is supposed to help him with his case:

“There is no telephone connection to the castle, there’s no switchboard passing on our calls; if we call someone in the castle from here, the telephones ring in all the lower departments, or perhaps they would if, as I know for a fact, the sound was not turned off on nearly all of them.”

(Kafka, 2009, 67)

Similarly, the hopelessness of Josef K.'s case comes to mind, since “... the court’s papers, above all the indictment, were not available to the accused and his defence, so that in general they didn’t know, or at least not precisely, what accusation the first submission was trying to refute.” (Kafka 2009, 81). Whether confronted with being thrown their fate or the problem of passage, Kafka's heroes usually live in a world in which the eschaton - if there are any signs of it - is completely unattainable for them, and thus their existence cannot be given any meaning. The search for a meaningful life and the disappointments that come with it give rise to apocalypticism.

The Kafkaesque world thus completely excludes any hope for the future, rendering these texts post-apocalyptic. They must acknowledge that the apocalypse has happened and try to continue living their lives, there being no other option. As Maurice Blanchot puts it about the hopelessness of the Kafkaesque world:

“Existence is interminable, and is nothing but an indeterminate, not letting us know if we are excluded from it (and this is why we seek inside in vain for a solid grasp) or whether we are forever shut in it (and hence we desperately turn toward the outside). This existence is an exile in the strongest sense - we are not there, we are somewhere else, and we will never stop residing there.”

(Blanchot 2015, 34)

1 “Apocalypse means, in the literal and figurative sense, revelation” Jacob Taubes. translated David Ratmoko 2009, 4

2 The story can also be found as a story told by the priest in Chapter 9 of The Trial.

3 The text is about a common fantasy, in which a dying emperor, lying on his deathbed, uses his last ounce of strength to send a message to a commoner. The messenger tries to deliver this message, but he cannot reach the addressee: the palace halls, courtyards, more courtyards, and more palaces make it impossible for the message to arrive.

References:

Blanchot, Maurice. 2015. From Out of Kafka to Kafka Translated: Wanyoung Kim

Farkas, Attila Márton. 2018. Franz Kafka sírjában. Liget Műhely.

Fekete, Kristóf. 2020. “Lukács Kafkát olvas.” Magyar Filozófiai Szemle 64 (2).

Kafka, Franz. 1971. The complete stories. Schocken Books

Kafka, Franz. 2009. The Trial. Oxford University Press

Kafka, Franz. 2009. The Castle. Oxford University Press

Taubes, Jacob. 2009. Occidental Eschatology. Translated: David Ratmoko. Stanford University Press