Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.17234/ZGB.30.4

Naumachy of Writing. Kafka, Violence, and the Sea

Nora Zapf ; University of Innsbruck

Abstract

In his few texts about the sea, Kafka depicts it as a space of violence. He therefore brings it in connection with the metaphor of a weapon: either a concrete weapon as a sword or a trident in "The Man who Disappeared" and in "Poseidon" or an abstract weapon such as the one from "The Silence of the Sirens". Historical processes rich in violence, such as colonization, enslavement and exile are conceived together with mythical confrontations. Kafka modernizes scenes of battle on the sea with an image of a bureaucrat ruling the sea: a figure of power and control over resources, i.e. a clerk in charge of possessions and sentencing. The pen becomes the weapon, either pedantically noting everything down or writing one’s self out of that power situation by means of literature.

Keywords

Kafka; sea novel; violence

Hrčak ID:

272139

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/272139

Publication date:

1.2.2022.

Article data in other languages: german

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