Kafka, In the Penal Colony

1
Kafka, In the Penal Colony

• By
• Thijs van Blitterswijk
• Annet van Dijk
• Ioulia Grigorieva
• Kevania Menig
• Inge van de Ven

2
Forschungsreisender (traveller)

• Not a citizen (He was neither a citizen of the
  penal colony nor a citizen of the state to which
  it belonged)
• from Europe ? Enlightenment
• flat character
• rational, not empathic

3
Does he pass judgement on the course of justice
on the island?

• YES
• Although he is reluctant, he tells the officer
  that he will not support him.
• He does not stop the officer.

• NO
• He does not go public with it.
• He leaves the island without doing anything.

4
The last scene

• No responsibility
• Limbo
• Acceptance of the existence of procedures that he
  does not agree with
• Border between two worlds kept
• Like a bad dream

5
Intertextuality connection to Dante (1)

• Dante traveller
• Virgil officer
• Hell penal colony
• aspect of torture
• guilt punishment responsibility
• the Condemned man unbaptized babies

6
Intertextuality connection to Dante (2)

• contrapasso the punishment corresponds to the
  sin
• the law the condemned violated is inscribed on
  his body for educational purposes there is a
  leather folder containing sheets with
  inscriptions
• BUT
• IRONY 1 only the old commandant and the officer
  can read what the sheets say
• (The condemned people can only make out the
  words shortly before they die)
• IRONY 2 the officer does not recognize anything

7
Bibliography

• Kafka, F. (1919) In the penal colony.
  http//www.mala.bc.ca/johnstoi/kafka/inthepenalco
  lony.htm
• Müller-Seidel, W. (1986) Die Deportation des
  Menschen. Stuttgart Metzler