Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Aref Danyali ¹
• Morad Esmaeeli ²

¹ Ph.D. in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Gonbad Kavous University.

² Ph.D. in Persian Language and Literature, Assistant Professor, Gonbad Kavous University.

Abstract

Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach and a conceptual analysis of Kafka’s novels, the present study seeks to demonstrate how Kafka is the great discoverer of State of exception that Agamben theorizes in his philosophy. According to Agamben, the camp, as the embodiment of this state of exception, is the paradigm of the modern world. What marks this condition is its ambiguity and indeterminacy. This indeterminacy of the exceptional situation extends to the very concept of law: a law that, although issues no definite rule or prescription, can nevertheless attain an all-encompassing totality through a “being in force without significance”; a law that is exercised in its very non-application. For Agamben, resisting the indeterminacy of law (a law devoid of any specific command), this pure contentless force, requires a new understanding of action; an understanding that can be found only in Kafka’s writings. In a fragmented world where objects and persons have become “dislocated”, Kafka’s protagonist departs from the classical model of the hero to confront this exceptional and indeterminate state. Yet if the Kafkaesque figure continually encounters indeterminate situations, then no definite transcendental standpoint is ever proposed. On the contrary, for Kafka, every point or position—everywhere and nowhere—may simultaneously serve as “trap/salvation.” One of the implications of this study is that the image of Kafka as a passive and isolated writer giving way instead to a liberatory Kafka in whose works every point and every minute may become a site of messianic emergence.

Keywords

• Kafka
• Agamben
• indeterminate spaces
• messianic time
• action
• law