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"The Performance of Perversion in Kafka's Literature and Its Adaptations" Complete Thesis

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THE PERFORMANCE OF PERVERSION IN KAFKA’S LITERATURE AND ITS ADAPTATIONS Davide Cerfeda Supervisors: Heather Benbow and Mark Nicholls Contents INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER ONE ........................................................................................................................................... 5 OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................ 5 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 5 METHODOLOGY.................................................................................................................................... 5 WHAT ARE PERVERSIONS? ................................................................................................................... 7 THE WORLD THEATRE: PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMATIVITY ........................................................ 10 KAFKA’S LIFE: THE ORIGIN OF PERVERSION ....................................................................................... 12 THE PERVERSION OF GENDER ............................................................................................................ 15 NON-HUMAN ANIMALS: THE PERVERSION OF HUMANITY ............................................................... 18 A PERVERTED JUSTICE: LAW IN KAFKA’S LITERATURE ........................................................................ 21 CHAPTER TWO ........................................................................................................................................ 25 PERFORMING THE PERVERSE SELF ......................................................................................................... 25 BACKGROUND AND THEMES .............................................................................................................. 25 THE PERVERSION OF THE OUTSIDER .................................................................................................. 25 EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT PERFORMANCES ........................................................................................... 26 AUDIENCE AND THE “INNOCENT” SPECTATOR .................................................................................. 28 KAFKA’S PARENTS AND THE EARLY YEARS: PSYCHOANALYSIS AND PERVERSION ............................. 31 KAFKA’S FATHER AS A STANDARD ...................................................................................................... 35 KAFKA’S UNIVERSITY YEARS: SEX PERVERSION .................................................................................. 37 ADULT AGE – WORK AND THE PERVERSION OF JUSTICE ................................................................... 39 ADULTHOOD – JEWISHNESS ............................................................................................................... 43 JEWS AS OUTCAST ANIMALS .............................................................................................................. 46 THE LAST YEARS – ILLNESS AND JUDAISM .......................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER THREE ..................................................................................................................................... 53 THE PERFORMANCE OF GENDER AND ITS PERVERSION ........................................................................ 53 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 53 GENDER STUDIES ................................................................................................................................ 53 JUDITH BUTLER AND THE PERFORMANCE OF GENDER ...................................................................... 58 QUEER THEORY AND PERVERSION ..................................................................................................... 60 GENDER PERFORMANCE AND KAFKA ................................................................................................. 62 CLOSET DRAMA AND CLOSET PROSE ................................................................................................. 63 THE THREE GENDERS .......................................................................................................................... 66 MALE AUTHORITY FIGURES: MASCULINITY AND POWER .................................................................. 68 AUTHORITY FIGURES - FATHERS ......................................................................................................... 71 FEMALE CHARACTERS ........................................................................................................................ 73 MAIN CHARACTERS: PERFORMANCE OF THE PERVERTED GENDER................................................... 77 CHAPTER FOUR ....................................................................................................................................... 81 THE PERVERSION OF HUMANITY ............................................................................................................ 81 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 81 ANIMALITY AND ANTHROPOCENTRISM ............................................................................................. 81 KAFKA’S ANIMALS .............................................................................................................................. 85 ANIMALS AND HUMANS: PERFORMING SPECTATORS ....................................................................... 88 DIFFERENT KINDS OF DRAG ................................................................................................................ 91 THE KAFKIAN MONKEY ....................................................................................................................... 94 CHAPTER FIVE ....................................................................................................................................... 103 PUNISHMENT AND LAW: THE PERVERSION OF JUSTICE ...................................................................... 103 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 103 KAFKA’S LAW: SECULAR AND TEMPORAL CREATION OF RULES ...................................................... 104 THE PERVERSION OF PUNISHMENT ................................................................................................. 108 LETTER TO HIS FATHER: A PERVERTED TRIAL ................................................................................... 111 THE TRIAL ......................................................................................................................................... 117 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................ 125 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................................... 129 Norris, Margot. “Sadism and Masochism in Two Kafka Stories: ’In Der Strafkolonie‘ and ’Ein Hungerkünstler‘.” MLN 93, no.3 (1978): 430-447. ............................................................................................. 134 Zilcosky, John. Kafka’s Travels: Exoticism, Colonialism and the Traffic of Writing. London: Palgrave McMillan, 2005. .................................................................................................................................................. 136 FILMOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................................... 137 INTRODUCTION Kafka’s life and literature are dominated by the contraposition of social standards and perversions that express themselves through constant performances. The first recorded relationship between Kafka and the performing arts dates back to his childhood, when the writer, the oldest of his siblings and already passionate about writing, wrote plays for family gatherings, so that his three sisters could play in them. Kafka felt uncomfortable playing in his works and even as an adult he avoided as much as possible public readings and considered reading aloud to his sisters as a vanity. At the same time, he treated most of the readings he gave as performances in which he had to be at his best, and as opportunities to shine in the eyes of those he cared for. In a diary entry of the 25th February 1912, he expresses disappointment in the absence of his parents during his opening speech at a night in honour of Yiddish art. These performances were mostly speeches and readings of his stories, and there is no record of the plays he wrote for his sisters. After that, Kafka never wrote for the theatre any longer, with the sole exception the unfinished short piece The Warden of the Tomb. Nonetheless, Kafka wrote extensively in his diaries and letters about his passion for theatre and his relationship with cinema, an art that fascinated and frightened him at the same time. He commented upon the plays he saw, he cried at movies and reviewed actors’ performances and their mis-casting in his diary.
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