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Kafka and Parables Warning Concerning Copyright Restrictions The Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research. If electronic transmission of reserve material is used for purposes in excess of what constitutes "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. Midrash and Literature Edited by Geoffrey H. Hartman and Sanford Bu dick Yale University Press New Haven and London .. ., 1 • ""''' :~ JILL ROBBINS contrasts in homiletic midrashim. 111ergencia, espacio, 'mundos po­ ges," RI 43, 100 (1977), 3!;7-79. t4adrid: Tecnos, 1962), s.v. "Judas Kafka's Parables las," Labyrinths (hereafter L), ed. n Books, 1964), p. 126. The trans­ lpel' are James E. Irby (for "Three ~urillo (for "The God's Script"). res: Ernece Editores, 1966), p. 28. id en la obra de Borges (Buenos Aires: es," Poetique 55 (1983), 280. In Kafka's unfinished novel The Castle, K. visits the Mayor to find out !Ce Editores, 1956), p. 195. about the terms of his employment as Land Surveyor. The Mayor ex­ es (Madrid: Gredos, 1974), p. 128. plains to him at length that no Land Surveyor is needed, and that K.'s Madrid: Gredos, 1977), Alazraki ration, pointing out that it escapes being summoned was an error. ~phor of a second meaning. :os. "Allow me, Mr. Mayor, to interrupt you with a question," said K. "Did >dorov's Symbolisrne et interpretation you not mention once before a Contro1 Authority? From your account of the way things are run here, the very idea that the Control could be lacking makes :me"), in El Aleph (Buenos Aires: one feel unwell." "You are very rigorous," said the Mayor, "but multiply your rigor a thou­ In the Text, ed. Susan R. Suleiman sand times and it would still be nothing compared with the rigor that the ess, 1980), p. 168. Authority imposes on itself Only a total stranger could ask a question like nashal which distinguishes it from yours. Is there a Control Authority? There are only Control Authorities. Of nee to understand by itself what course, it isn't their function to hunt out errors in the vulgar sense of the word, ~ mashal. "Rhetoric and Midrash: for errors don't happen, and even if once in a while an error does happen, as in your case, who can say finally that it's an error?" 11eee Editores, 1960), p. 42. "This is something entirely new!" cried K. "To me it is something very old," said the Mayor. 1 ~. On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism ro hear the aleph is to hear next The Mayor's logic is characteristic of Kafka's writing-a double or :e, but in itself conveys no deter- triple movement ofinterpretation that cancels itself out: 1) errors don't happen; 2) K.'s being summoned is an error; 3) who can say :finally that it's an error? Here, the movement is further complicated by a question that runs throughout the novel: was K. in fact summoned by the Castle at all? (The first words K. utters upon his arrival are: "What village is this that I have wandered into? Is there a Castle here?") 2 The Mayor himself is not sure if K. was indeed summoned. Shortly after this ex­ change, the Mayor says: "I don't know whether in your case a decision of this kind happened-some people say yes, others no-but if it had happened, then the summons would have been sent to you."3 But the authority of the Mayor-the one who names K.'s being summoned an error and not-is in turn discredited by the Landlady ("The Mayor is a person of no importance," she informs K). 4 Perhaps 265 .,,---·--"-----------------------~- 266 JILL ROBBINS the statement about the possibility of error, a statement made by one connectives. "8 The Mayor ai who has no authority, is itself in the mode of error. This suspicion is by side. The connectives tha1 reinforced by K.'s progressive insight throughout the·novel that all his logical ones, a gap in thoug} perceptions, all his figurations of the Castle bureaucracy, the Mayor, tradiction, for example. Bu1 and the Landlady, may be illusory, that is, in the mode of error. But reveals that its juxtaposition what if, in a kind of infinite regress, .this insight that everything is illu­ the Mayor's discourse does, sory is itself illusory, the statement that everything is an error also an nectives: "Of course, it is nc error? The kinds of conclusions that a reader of Kafka might draw from vulgar sense of the word, fa the larger context of the Mayor's statement about error are hardly en­ does happen, as in your cas couraging. If the putting into question of the Mayor's authority is not On what one could call the : 9 authoritative, if the metadiscursive comment on the status of the May­ if anything, hypotactic. The or's discourse about error is not free of the error it identifies and tives and presence of"rhetoJ denounces, then the possibility of an interpretive metadiscourse on signals what could be a pot Kafka's writing seems to be discredited in advance. tween logic and rhetoric in IC Interpreters of Kafka will at one time or another come up against interpretation-if it is not tcJ tradiction or self-cancellatioI the two problems we have tried to identify here. The first, which is The importance of thes exemplified by the Mayor's logic, we might call "Kafka's law." We do has been noted by at least t, this to avoid calling this movement of self-cancellation "paradox," as metz, for example, has point, some commentators have done, thereby reducing this movement to a adverbial modifiers and prq: concept at the expense of its distinctive rhetorical features. 5 Indeed, a aber, freilich, allerdings, viehnehr, more felicitous model for the kind of "logic" that is at work here is certainly, rather, in spite 0£ summoned up by Freud, when he recounts the joke about the bor­ the work of Herman Uytters rowed kettle: to "the interplay between h; A. borrowed a copper kettle from B. and after he had returned it was sued most all the argumentative by B. because the kettle now had a big hole in it which made it unusable. His fleeted on, hypotheses are , defence was: "First, I never borrowed a kettle from B. at all; secondly, the explained into facts, out of \'I kettle had a hole in it already when I got it from him; and thirdly, I gave him Uyttersprot, "Every known back the kettle undamaged.'' doubt, every hypothesis, on 1 Freud notes that "Each one of these defences is valid in itself, but taken rigor of certainty." Uytterspn together they exclude one another. A. was treating in isolation what centers on the occurrence of had to be regarded as a connected whole."6 In such a treatment, says port for his observation tha1 Freud, "there is no such thing as an either-or, only a simultaneous adversative conjunction 'abe juxtaposition" (kein Entweder-Oder, nur ein gleichzeitiges Nebeneinander). 7 The the average two and three tiil discourse of the Mayor, like that of A., the borrower of the kettle, The cause of this lies in the involves a paratactic juxtaposition of mutually exclusive claims. Parataxis cannot simply see and feel in (from the Greek word meaning "placing side by side") refers to and hesitate out of cowardi "clauses or phrases arranged independently, a coordinate rather than sightedness. A soul which al subordinate construction," "sometimes ... without the customary assertion, instantly heard a litl Kafka's Parables 267 , a statement made by one connectives."8 The Mayor and A. place contradictory statements side of error. This suspicion is by side. The connectives that are missing between these statements are ghout the novel that all his logical ones, a gap in thought in violation of the principle of noncon­ e bureaucracy, the Mayor, tradiction, for example. But a closer look at the Mayor's discourse in the mode of error. But reveals that its juxtaposition is paratactic on the level oflogic only. For iight that everything is illu­ the Mayor's discourse does employ subordinate construction and con­ ~g is an error also an nectives: "Of course, it is not their function to hunt out errors in the r ofKafka might draw from vulgar sense of the word, for errors don't happen, and even if an error about error are hardly en­ does happen, as in your case, who can say finally that it's an error?" On what one could call the level of rhetoric, the Mayor's discourse is, le Mayor's authority is not if anything, hypotactic.9 The simultaneous absence of logical connec­ lt on the status of the May­ the error it identifies and tives and presence of "rhetorical" connectives in the Mayor's discourse signals what could be a potential tension or mutual interference be­ rpretive metadiscourse on tween logic and rhetoric in Kafka's writing. Perhaps the burden ofKafka .dvance. interpretation-if it is not to reduce Kafka's writing to mere self-con­ 1r another come up against tradiction or self-cancellation-is precisely to read the connectives. here. The first, which is y The importance of these connectives, these particles of speech, : call "Kafka's law." We do has been noted by at least two of Kafka's commentators.
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