KAFKA AND MARXIST THEORY.

 

 KAFKA AND MARXIST THEORY.

          

Many commentators of Kafka – especially in the 1950ies and 60ies - started out from a Marxist perspective and have seen FK as illustrator of the idea of Entfremdung, displayed by Marx in the Paris manuscripts ( in ”Nationalökonomie und Philosophie” ).

This idea of KM – an ontological/sociological one – probably erupts from another term: alienation, which can be found by the early Hegel, the important inspiratory of Marx.  Hegel - a philosopher of purely metaphysical kind, a philosopher of Conscience - introduced the concept of "Entfremdung", estrange-ment, in connection with an analysis of the division of labor. Karl Marx defines alienated labor as: labor in order to own. The prerequisite for this definition is class analysis and a criticism of existing capitalist bourgeois economics.

To Hegel – who was a solid bourgeois character, much to bourgeois even to Goethe …. - alienation was an experience of the outer world as hostile and strange, an experience that could be overcome with an inner maturing process. With Marx alienation was seen as only existent within a capitalist economy and could only be overcome with a social revolution.

Most clearly reflected is this kind of experienced estrangement with respect to Kafka´s works in the animal stories by Kafka, as well as in the history The building of the Great Wall of China, Bense for instance claims. In aesthetics we have come to speak, linked to the original concept of alienation, about the effect of Estrangement (not least through the works of Brecht) and we can meet this effect with Kafka too, and we might see the effect of estrangement as a part of the concept of the Kafkaesque. It is thus part of the effect of the technical efforts of Kafka. This very effect is typical of the genre of literary expressionism (Trakl, Brecht, Morgenstern), and expressionism in turn has long been associated with the works of Kafka, and it was early hinted by the historian Kasimir Edschmid that Kafka´s works belonged to Expressionism. The effect of estrangement was, acquired by artistic VERFREMDUNG ( making something or someone unfamiliar, strange, foreign - a literary trick ) according to him, describing alienation, reification, linked to modernity, modern technique and the effects of modern economy. Expressionism was however an individualist movement, and as such, according to Marxist theorists, alienated.

Alienation was seen as a symptom as well as the modern artist himself was. Kafka appeared in the midst of this debate on alienation, and he came to illustrate the lonely artist in an alienated world: The big debate around Kafka and alienation had started. It took place primarily in Germany, France and in the newly shaped Czechoslovakia. Important contributors were among others Goldstücker, Garaudy, Riemann, Mittenzwei, Seghers and Kusak.

Marxist writers have found Kafka's The Metamorphosis, The Trial, etc. in special to be descriptions of the alienated man in the high capitalist society.   Kusak:

 

 ”Kafka seems to me as the paramount realist of the 20ieth century, and he saw it [alienation] better than anybody else.”   ”/…. / he [ Kafka ] saw the horror of his time .”   /…../”As Marxists we must not only see the influence of reality upon Kafka, but also how Kafka can help us solve the enigma of reality.””.

 

Ernst Schumacher, around the year of 1968,  in 'Kafka vor der neuen Welt':

 

  “Has not this rightly rejected vulgar sociological approach been replaced, namely with the philosophically idealistic view, and finally with an existentialist, which does Kafka as little right as the other views? They set out with the man's estrangement, that Kafka as few other contemporaries could conceive and portray literary. It follows, that this estrangement would simultaneously be the eternal category of the human being and that human failure is inevitable and must be borne stoically, like Kafka's characters do. I think this kind of "philosophizing" is improper for a true Marxist. ".

 

                Paul Riemann:

 

”We commonly see Kafka, not as a discoverer of new worlds, but as the shipwrecked. Personally I have to say, that I cannot see the shipwrecked...”

 

                Roger Garaudy:

 

”Marxists have claimed that this conflict ( the inner versus family, the Jew, social society ) ultimately has character of a conflict between classes. Due to his personal situation Kafka experienced the oppositions between classes and the alienation in a more intensified form.” 

 

 

Main themes are, according to Garaudy, the following three: a.)The animal The theme of awakening: Man is a being, doubting his life. ( Report to an academy, The Metamorphosis, The Burrow.)  b.) The search – Theme of searching for a new and a truer life. ( The Trial, The Castle.). c.) Theme of the unfulfilled.  ( In all of Kafka´s works.) 

 

 ”Literary creation is to him the technique of overcoming alienation. Poetry is the opposite of alienation.” 

 

In the early 20ieth century, in the aftermath of the war, discussion on culture often was centered on the concept of disaster like with Spengler. The German sociologist Max Weber also played a part with his ideas of organization theory and was interested in what organization creates, and what can make this run wild.   Organization is in itself a potential iron cage for modern Man, according to Weber. The existence of organization, as well as of institution, might thus lead to revolt and chaos. Weber himself had a personal background  very similar to that of Kafka.

Thus Kafka often also is seen as a dystopian writer, alongside Orwell, prophesizing about a society marked by very little freedom for the common man.

 

 

ETERNAL SHAME ON RUSSIA!

 

SUPPORT the UKRAINE !
PUTIN launches a terrorist war on A SOUVEREIGN Democratic COUNTRY!
BAN RUSSIA !   What is the difference between Russia and Nazi-Germany?
ETERNAL SHAME ON RUSSIA!
CHINA must STOP to SUPPORT RUSSIAN AGGRESSION!
Both Russia and China essentially are Copy-Economies and ought to think twice before they mess with the Western Ec. Sphere. And Russia and China of course are Copy-Economies just because they are NOT Valid - or not at all - Democracies.
Non-Democratic Countries has not the Ability to enable major Discoveries or to keep up a vibrant and Omni-Potent Cultural Life. The Political Life of such Countries is mainly concentrated upon Aggression and upon different ways in trying to control aquire Foreign Territories, Foreign Markets, as well as Foreign Businesses, hereby only causing those Areas and Businesses to Falter, due to wholly Inadequate Managing. Without Democracy - this is also an empirical fact - NO country can prosper, neither can any Individuals within the Borders of such Countries reach His, Hers or Its fullest Potential or a Good Life.

Lejonsjukan, FREE DOWNLOAD EBOOK AMAZON for 5 days. Opportunity

 

Lejonsjukan. Roman. Kaj Genell

The literary "TRICK". Kafka. Kaj Genell´s book "Kafka" 2021.

 

THE LITERARY WORK.

 

THE TRICK

 

It is a long tradition to deal with literature as if we are dealing with pure description. When we are talking about literary works, it is as if we assume that a literary work – and the fictive universe of a literary work – is composed through the description. This is not always true, or not at all true in many cases.

Among theorists, only some - like, for instance, Umberto Eco - have realized that in literature, in poetry as well as prose, we might be rewarded with greater insight if we stop talking about descriptions and instead concentrate on literary grips, devices, perceivable by a formalist eye, and upon the troublesome fact, that literature most often deals with deception and mischievous TRICKS. ( Dylan Thomas knew this.)

Never has it been more accurate than in Kafka's case to assert that a short story or a novel forms itself by a massive TRICK. Perhaps to Kafka, the TRICK is more important than anything else.

To some people, this structural and formalist notion is not a very welcome insight. It makes it much harder to interpret and evaluate literary work, and for some people, who have an AGENDA, to explain Kafka´s technique out of the effect that their particular interpretation of the works of Kafka leads them. It is much harder to discuss a literary piece's supposed philosophy if this philosophy works inside a literary structural TRICK, much like inside a magician's mirror.

Noting the use of a TRICK in a literary work does not diminish the piece of  art in question. On the contrary:

It takes enormous skill, craft, and talent to seamlessly use a TRICK IN  A LITERARY WORK, SO THAT ALMOST NOBODY CAN SEE THAT YOU ARE USING ONE.

We cannot easily discuss anything that seems to be set in a universe with other dimensions than our familiar universe. Moreover, to the typical person, or the ordinary reader of a literary work, any technical reasoning concerning how a novel is built results in almost totally obscuring the experience of the work and is hugely tiresome. It is, as we have hinted at, even to the expert reader, troublesome. How could we comment explanatorily, fruitfully, on something made out of a HOAX? Still, we have to do this if we want to comment upon Kafka, however uneasy this might make us.

Many an earth-bound comment or existence-philosophical argument will have absolutely no ground to stand upon if it turns out that the discourse in question is a mere literary device and based upon a paradoxical construction outside every tangible human experience of the world.

A question like: ”What is the meaning of the work?” only has got an answer on a meta-level. We need to shatter innocence. If we should subtract meaning, this will have to happen through the mediation of structural reasoning around literary tricks. Furthermore, this WILL also be extremely hard.

A Literary work is not mainly ABOUT some particular thing, but it instead WORKS, functions, in a certain way. To reveal this, we will have to use a formalist method and – in this very case – a Freudo-Structuralist approach since the universe of Kafka is built upon the notion and existence of a Freudian Unconscious.

 

 

LEJONSJUKAN - ... en kulturroman?

 

LEJONSJUKAN

En stor lastbåt, en Cargo Carrier, lämnar London Harbor med bland annat ett lejon i lasten. Efter bara ett par timmar till sjöss står det klart att det finns en farlig sjukdom ombord. Man inser också att en ny pandemi kan spridas från skeppet. Samuel Diggerson, tredjestyr-man och båtens kapten, Daniel Stork, försöker finna ett sätt att rädda besättning, passagerare, skepp och hela världen från den udda sjukdomen.

 

 

 

 

Kaj Bernh. Genell är född i Göteborg 1944. Efter en äventyrlig ungdom på Konstskolor och Universitet och intresse för fördjupning i Filosofi, publicerade G. 1983 en tankebok, ”Ironi och Existens”. Denna bok är en av de få monografier över apperceptionsfenomenet Ironi som finns på svenska. Senare skulle G. uppslukas av ett stort Kafka-projekt, med målet att söka ta reda på hur Franz Kafka gjorde för att skapa den sällsynta effekt, som dennes romaner ger, vid läsning. Den effekten kallas vanligen ”kafkaeffekt”, alternativt ”det Kafkaeska”. Denna effekt- och apperceptionsfenomenforskning ( eller snarare spekulation ) ledde sedan till böckerna ”Kafka och det kafkaeska” (2018) och den Engelska versionen av denna bok ( ”Kafka”, 2021). Efter dettas gigantiska arbete valde så G. att koppla om till att författa romaner. “Pistolen”, “Tavelstölden”, “Tegelkrona och skönheten”, ”Höstdrama” and “Skjuta sig fri” ( alla på BoD ) som skrevs snabbt och hetsigt. 

Under pseudonymen ”Bill Clactoe” valde så G. snart att söka lyckan i att skriva på Engelska. ”Fell´s Point” (BoD), en Crime-story som utspelar sig i Baltimore, USA, kom ut 2021, tätt följd av romanen The Lion´s Disease (2022), - enligt G. själv: ”a psychological and philosophical comment on pandemics by describing an Odyssey to Indonesia on a Bulk Cargo  Carrier”, med en svensk version tätt efter, med titeln ”Lejonsjukan” (2022, Amazon och Kindle)

 

 

Freud och censur

 S. Freud 1897 i brev till Wilhelm Fliess: "Har du nån gång läst en utländsk tidning som passerat den ryska censuren ? Ord, hela delar av satser och satser överstrukna med svart, så att resten blir obegripligt."

Men detta var tzarryssland......

TRANCE AND PSYCHO-ANALYSIS.

 

i.                 TRANCE AND PSYCHO-ANALYSIS.

 

 

TRANCE.

 

K

afka started writing literary prose in his teens. He soon discovered his odd ability and tendency to put himself in a half dormant state, some trance, when writing. Without this ability, it seems unlikely that he could have written something close to what he did. Now, writing in this state of trance seems to connect to some form of ecstasy. Kafka: „My terrible calm takes my fantasy away.“ He thus seems to have used an almost pathological state in creation. If this state or condition was a hypnagogic or a hallucinated one, we do not know. What can be inferred from his biography is that creative periods coincide with periods of insomnia and severe headaches. Headaches did not torture him when he refrained from projects that appeared difficult to him, like, for instance, the completion of a novel. Kafka was well aware of this. It must have been a peculiarity to him and a horror noticing that the headaches had a connection to the large artistic projects. His body strongly revolted against his creations and his literary method! What again was this nightly “trance”? Was it a state of “double consciousness”? He was here, so to say, present in two worlds simultaneously, both awake and asleep, partly enjoying imagination, partly aware and writing, using several senses, in a kind of “stream of unconsciousness”? It also seems he loved to be in this state of mind. As if he was addicted to it.

 

         ”The main enemy of Don Quixote was not 

          his fantasy, but Sancho Panza.” (FK)

 

It was almost like he was using himself as a  ”medium.” Furthermore, FK's stories are about writing itself. These tales - or poems - do not just use writing as a pretext, but writing is displayed, in brilliant disguise, in a discourse of desire, sometimes quite like an erotic act. Kafka thus displays images for this, as in A Country Doctor, where Kafka uses the idea of riding for writing - riding on his pen -and maybe is naming the tales themselves “horses.”

 

HIEBEL.

 

One of the keys to understanding Kafka's writings can be found in the relationship between Kafka and psychoanalysis. Hiebel elaborates interestingly on this subject in his book Franz Kafka, Form und Bedeutung.  He has a lot to say about the presence of elements with traditional psychoanalytic color in several of Kafka´s works. Hiebel asserts that one has to discern those narrations by Kafka, that has a structure very much like that of the dream, in having inherent a kind of mechanic of the hieroglyphic kind like that of the dream, for example, A Country Doctor has, from works like The Trial, where there can be found an abundance of conventional dream elements, which almost seem to emerge from examples from the dream theory of Freud.  It is a good distinction to do, and necessary for further understanding of Kafka´s literary style. That FK did not align to psychoanalytical thinking,  but that he sooner, as a kind of protest, shaped his competitive theory and/or style, is also part of Hiebel´s view here. It seems reasonable. However, Kafka´s theory was not explicit as a theory, but is explicit only in the form of the art it aimed to create. In Kafka, it is not about dreams but about ”simulations of dreams,” Hiebel asserts. This idea seems rather undialectical, though. Hiebel is clarifying his view:

 

  ”/…../ and these again are not meant as dreams, but as realities, which are structured like dreams.”/……………../ ”It is apparent that Kafka well knows of the model of psychoanalysis and to a certain extent is accepting this, but sees it as pure ”modelings”, pictures, images of mind, myths, tales, and he disrupts from it every value of explanation as well as therapeutic value. From his explicit utterances one can understand that Kafka is comfortable in a psychological theory of his own, rejecting contemporary psychoanalysis.  This competing of theories is, however, restricted to his own literary works, in which his own psychology emerges. This comes about, like we have underlined several times, in a conscious manner, which carries the consequence, that psychoanalysis cannot be used as a ”method” on the works of Kafka and on Kafka as a person.”

                                                                         

It is a remarkable conclusion, that Kafka himself couldn´t be viewed through psychoanalysis because he was creating a competing theory!  Hiebel claims that the analyses made by Kaiser and Mecke concerning psychopathological problems in cases of presumed schizoid personality, infantilism, fear of sexuality, fear of homosexuality, etc., with Kafka himself, perceived through his stories, are absurd to undertake. Hibel´s view is that, to understand Kafka´s works, the understanding of the psychoanalytical mythology provides an essential layer within a broad symbolic and mythical interpretation. This seems evident.

 

 

ii.)           THE KAFKAESQUE. A SPLIT UNIVERSE.

 

                                                                  

H

istory has really done a great job: it has created the concept of Kafkaesque! Even “Kafka” might almost be said to have become a concept. It is rare for a writer to be known partly through a concept molded after his or her name. What then, is the meaning of the concept of Kafkaesque? Interestingly enough, a small empirical investigation of the ”Kafkaesque” concept has been undertaken by D. Jakob. He has come up with the following characteristics, which should mark this concept:

 

   ”Anxiety, uncertainty, frustration, “Verfremdung,” exposure to a cruel fate, anonymous in shape, bureaucratically governed power, terror, dreadfulness, gloom, guilt, despair, judgment, meaninglessness,  the resortless, absurdity..”

 

The concept of “Kafkaesque” can never be fully defined since it belongs to the class of concepts of essence or concepts of style. We can only reflect upon these concepts in strict subjectivity and try to make our views probable. In making views liable, it is crucial to reach a certain consensus.

 

Regarding some distinctive points and in determining the “Kafkaesque,” I think that our conception regarding who the hero of Kafka´s works is, is of significant importance. The following has to be agreed upon: the relationship between the hero and the surrounding world is crucial for determining the content of the concept. The nature of this relationship is hard to formalize. However, determining this very relation seems to be the key to this concept. We might come near to a description by finding out what the Hero of a Kafka story appears to be able to execute and the configuration of the world surrounding the hero. The surrounding world is also an agent, a Spirit in disguise. In this, the works of Kafka are similar to those of symbolism but oddly exaggerated.

 

 

“In my dictionary, “Kafkaesque” is defined as a “vision of man’s isolated existence in a dehumanized world,´.” 

                                                                                                        ( Zadie Smith )

from my book "Kafka".