Hannah Arendt, "Franz Kafka, a Revaluation"
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The vain attempt to found problem of the movement very Franz Kafka: A Revaluation :he youth movement, which is a l women's movement only for the ON THE OCCASION OF THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH , they would, according to Riihle mass of the working classes, de ty in that realm. This way their e social situation sketched above. 1 and the analysis of the social ousewife becomes a propertyless :s up. At that point, for the first iation (the author means to say: tion becomes clear to her). But :he reality that, even in the case ,till caught up in the social unit m's dependence on a man with WENTY YEARS AGO, in the summer of 1924, Franz Kafka roceeds from a definition of the died at the age of forty. His reputation grew steadily in Aus :lividual. The individual should tria and Germany during the twenties and in France, England, :r, the family, which is either T and America during the thirties. His admirers in these countries, though ~ether in one case a proletarian strongly disagreeing about the inherent meaning of his work, agree, oddly nd in another case a bourgeois enough, on one essential point: All of them are struck by something new in his art of storytelling, a quality of modernity which appears nowhere 1structive and stimulating. Its else with the same intensity and unequivocalness. This is surprising, nininity," is presented with a because Kafka-in striking contrast with other favorite authors of the n basis for her study, a research intelligentsia-engaged in no technical experiments whatsoever; without was not large enough to support in any way changing the German language, he stripped it of its involved llWS. The statistics frequently constructions until it became clear and simple, like everyday speech :al spread that would legitimate purified of slang and negligence. The simplicity, the easy naturalness of his language may indicate that .Kafka's modernity and the difficulty of his work have very little to do with that modern complication of the Originally published in Partisan Review, Xl/4, 1944. Two somewhat different German versions of this essay were published, the first in Die Wandlung, 1/12, 1945-46, and the second in Arendt's Sechs Essays, 1948 (which was reprinted in her Die verborgene Tradition: Acht Essays, 1976). 69 70 / ESSAYS IN UNDERSTANDING FRANZ KAFK, inner life which is always looking out for new and unique techniques turns "lying into a universal JI to express new and unique feelings. The common experience of Kafka's justified humbleness. readers is one of general and vague fascination, even in stories they fail The feeling of guilt, thert: to understand, a precise recollection of strange and se~mingly absurd interior development of its ow images and descriptions-until one day the hidden meaning reveals itself is fit to stand trial. It is this fee to them with the sudden evidence of a truth simple and incontestable. the world of necessity and inju to the rules, of adapting him Let us begin with the novel The Trial, about which a small library of development of the hero-his interpretations has been published. It is the story of a man who is tried ond level of the story which according to laws which he cannot discover and finally is executed with reaucratic machine. The eve11 out having been able to find out what it is all about. development coincide finally i In his search for the real reasons for his ordeal, he learns that behind cution to which, although it it "a great organization is at work which ... not only employs corrupt struggle. wardens, stupid inspectors, and examining magistrates ... but also has It has been characteristic at its disposal a judicial hierarchy of high, indeed of the highest, rank, worst crimes have been commi1 with an indispensable and numerous retinue of servants, clerks, police or in the name-and this amo and other assistants, perhaps even hangmen." He hires an advocate, who the future." For people who su tells him at once that the only sensible thing to do is to adapt oneself to and their right of action, even existing conditions and not to criticize them. He turns to the prison for their delusion, anything me chaplain for advice, and the chaplain preaches the hidden greatness of words with which Kafka cone the system and orders him not to ask for the truth, "for it is not necessary the shame of it to outlive him. to accept everything as true, one must accept it as necessary." "A mel That The Trial implies a c ancholy conclusion," said K.; "it turns lying into a universal principle." bureaucratic regime, whose nu The force of the machinery in which the K. of The Trial is caught dominated by a homogeneous h lies precisely in this appearance of necessity, on the one hand, and in from the first appearance of the the admiration of the people for necessity, on the other. Lying for the insurance company and a loyal sake of necessity appears as something sublime; and a man who does not for whom he had had to obtai: submit to the machinery, though submission may mean his death, is very intimate knowledge of tru regarded as a sinner against some kind of divine order. In the case of knew that a man caught in th€ K., submission is obtained not by force, but simply through increase in demned; and that no man can the feeling of guilt of which the unbased accusation was the origin in where interpretation of the }a, the accused man. This feeling, of course, is based in the last instance lawlessness, and where the chi on the fact that no man is free from guilt. And since K. , a busy bank pensated by a bureaucratic macl employee, has never had time to ponder such generalities, he is induced privilege of ultimate decision. to explore certain unfamiliar regions of his ego. This in turn leads him reaucracy did not seem an evil into confusion, into mistaking the organized and wicked evil of the world terror expressed in the novel. J surrounding him for some necessary expression of that general guiltiness than by the real thing. They loo} which is harmless and almost innocent if compared with the ill will that interpretations, and they found STANDING FRANZ KAFKA: A REVALUATION f 71 new and unique techniques turns "lying into a universal principle" and uses and abuses even man's >mmon experience of Kafka's justified humbleness. tion, even in stories they fail The feeling of guilt, therefore, which gets hold of K. and starts an range and seemingly absurd interior development of its own, changes and models its victim until he hidden meaning reveals itself is fit to stand trial. It is this feeling which makes him capable of entering th simple and incontestable. the world of necessity and injustice and lying, of playing a role according to the rules, of adapting himself to existing conditions. This interior out which a small library of development of the hero-his education sentimentale-constitutes a sec .e story of a man who is tried ond level of the story which accompanies the functioning of the bu and finally is executed with reaucratic machine. The events of the exterior world and the interior al} about. development coincide finally in the last scene, the execution, an exe ordeal, he learns that behind cution to which, although it is without reason, K. submits without . not only employs corrupt struggle. magistrates ... but also has It has been characteristic of our history-conscious century that its indeed of the highest, rank, worst crimes have been committed in the name of some kind of necessity ue of servants, clerks, police or in the name-and this amounts to the same thing-of the "wave of 1." He hires an advocate, who the future." For people who submit to this, who renounce their freedom 1g to do is to adapt oneself to and their right of action, even though they may pay the price of death em. He turns to the prison for their delusion, anything more charitable can hardly be said than the ches the hidden greatness of words with which Kafka concludes The Trial: "It was as if he meant truth, "for it is not necessary the shame of it to outlive him." ept it as necessary." "A mel That The Trial implies a critique of the pre-war Austro-Hungarian g into a universal principle." bureaucratic regime, whose numerous and conflicting nationalities were he K. of The Trial is caught dominated by a homogeneous hierarchy of officials, has been understood .ty, on the one hand, and in from the first appearance of the novel.