The writing-torture of the body
A commentary on “The Penal Colony”, from Franz Kafka
Abstract
The article makes an interpretation of the short story “In the Penal Colony”, by Franz Kafka, taking as a principle of nuclear analysis, the body as the vanishing point and convergence of law and desire. Taking François Lyotard’s interpretation and Theodor Adorno’s philosophical conception as the most relevant support points, we advocate the hermeneutical hypothesis that the Kafkaesque narrative offers a metaphorical presentation of barbarism as a punitive inscription of the law on the body, constituting the inverse of the formative progression for culture and civilization.
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