Agamben's Joyful Kafka: Finding Freedom Beyond Subordination

Description

Both Giorgio Agamben and Franz Kafka are best known for their gloomy political worldview. A cautious study of Agamben's references on Kafka, however, reveals another dimension right at the intersection of their works: a complex and unorthodox theory of freedom. The inspiration emerges from Agamben's claims that 'it is a very poor reading of Kafka's works that sees in them only a summation of the anguish of a guilty man before the inscrutable power'. Virtually all of Kafka's stories leave us puzzled about what really happened. Was Josef K., who is butchered like a dog, defeated? And what about the meaningless but in his own way complete creature Odradek? Agamben's work sheds new light on these questions and arrives, through Kafka, at different strategies for freedom at the point where this freedom is most blatantly violated. FC Half title Title Copyright Dedication Quote Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: Kafka’s Hope Kafka’s legacy Agamben’s legacy Agamben’s reading of Kafka Agamben’s unorthodoxy Kafka’s hope: A way out Agamben’s hope: Profane messianism and potentiality Agamben’s goal: Fulfilment of the metaphysical tradition Kafka defended against his interpreters How to read this book 1 Strategies in Response to Law (1) Introduction The law that is in force without significance Kafka’s messianic inversion 2 Strategies in Response to Law (2) Introduction The ruse of the man from the country The self-slander of Joseph K. Bucephalus’ study 3 Strategies in Response to Bare Life Introduction The creation of bare life The indistinguishability of law and life in The Castle Kafka’s destruction of paradise Kafka’s creaturely lives 4 Strategies in Response to the ‘Work of Man’ Introduction Determining the ‘work of man’ Kafka’s ‘work cage’ Odradek’s being without purpose The being without work of the assistants and messengers The irreparability of the assistants Sancho Panza’s saving of Dulcinea 5 Strategies in Response to Activism Introduction The compulsion of activism The gestures of the Oklahoma theatre Joseph K.’s shame The ‘as not’ of the parable ‘On Parables’ 6 Strategies in Response to the Sacrality of Life Introduction The sacrality of life Kafka’s limbo The steps of the land surveyor Kafka’s new Kabbalah: Redemption for God, the count and the judges 7 Strategies in Response to Language Introduction Language as presupposition and exclusion The return of the person in suspended animation The impatience of literature Kafka’s becoming language and magical names The justness of the officer in the penal colony 8 Strategies in Response to Time (1) Introduction Time as chronological compulsion Kafka’s art: Perfect nihilism as the ground of our existence A free life in the shadow of the Great Wall of China The mighty paw of transmissibility Odradek’s Nachleben The closed fist in the city coat of arms 9 Strategies in Response to Time (2) Introduction The lightness of the bucket rider The Messiah who comes the day after his arrival Conclusion: Finding Freedom Beyond Subordination Law Life Power Language Time Finding freedom beyond subordination Bibliography Index