Franz Kafka and Literary Nihilism Author(s): Wilhelm Emrich, William W.

Langebartel and Irene Zuk Source: Journal of Modern Literature, Vol. 6, No. 3, Franz Kafka Special Number (Sep., 1977), pp. 366-379 Published by: Indiana University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3831181 . Accessed: 22/10/2013 07:22
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WILHELM

EMRICH

WEST BERLIN,GERMANY TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM W. LANCEBARTEL AND IRENE ZUK

Franz

Kafka Nihilism

and

Literary

Thatthe well-known sciously "nihilism" where radical violent sia then rejected Dostoevsky, concerned nihilism,

political fact organized the young sceptical debate

movement of modern

known history. also

as Nihilism

originated

in Russia

is a

movement,

first emerges Bazarov, thinking, over

Literary nihilism, in Russia. The word has its origins in Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons (1862), a representative is described of Western as a nihilist. material In the

a much

less con-

ism and following

this figure, after whom revolutionary groups in Rus? had at first sharply called themselves Nihilists, they although the figure of Bazarov as a caricature of their own intentions, whose with own novels and theoretical Western the struggle were primarily writings and material ism, atheism,

against to say:

had the following

Nihilism came into existence among us Russians because we are all nihilists. We were only frightened by the new, original form of its appear? ance. The dismay and worry of our intelligent men, who sought to discover the origin of the nihilists, was funny. They actually did not come from anywhere, but have always been with us, in us, and among us.1 With Russians before utters a truth which is not limited Dostoevsky just to the their specific of those life of life, that, even ways ways in Goncharov's in drastic form, for example, Turgenev, appear this, and character of the idle, hopelessly melancholy portrayed who shied from and despised all social obligations (1859). have been with us, in us, and among holds a more reality truth which consciousness. for a very wide ObThe

ingeniously lomov, is rather of human

fact that the nihilists

us all the time range

comprehensive and human

1 F. M. Dostoevsky, Literarische Schriften (Munich,1920), p. 359. 366

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367

In his analyses phenomenon immortality, the answer does

of nihilism, "that

Friedrich the

Nietzsche

saw

the cause

of this in

in the fact in ethical to the 'why'

supreme being With

values"?belief

in God,

principles?"are is lacking."2

lost. A purpose is lacking: this Nietzsche as formulates,

Dostoevsky, without usually the human trates

cause

the fact that the majority of contemporary humanity, under the reign of nihilism be? it, finds itself knowing of the "why" and purpose, of the highest meaning question is no longer material answered within society, which concenfor possessions. beyond is the Dostoevsky actual the Christians, the whole in proclaiming were in origin and of world, values Western has deinto the of of

existence, on purely

Nietzsche, that the heralds essence nihilism, famed next also

however, mhilists.

striving went a step

of the supreme

values,

Christianity

cause

because it as a world

it has depreciated of sin, is a mistake to

material

has transferred point to or even most

the supreme to 'social

world:

"It

'physiological degenerations' nihilism. It is the most honest,

corruption time.

emergencies' as the cause Need,

emphatic

intellectual need, is in itself by no means physical, nihilism the radical rejection of value, (that is, ing bility). nihilism These lies needs still permit quite different in a quite Nietzsche the life

incapable meaning,

spiritual, of produc? and desira-

specific formulates and no pure himself literary

interpretation, a remarkable styles values, are

But: interpretations. in the Christian-moral

interpretation.''3 With nihilism. material oriented nihilism. Franz situation, when Kafka both found in his exactly creation about the in this and two-sided problematical life two situation, this Both things, toward double restricted moral by the of man, and covered the of aspect to purely way of life of

thought supreme beyond

know the

concept

in his actual between

he constantly in his works nents" ronment. These

speaks and in his

"opponents" on grounds of absolute moral commandments restrict him to a material life through reference

"struggle" "oppowith his envi? personal preoccupation either drive him out of worldly existence and demands to the duties or want of society, to

2 FriedrichNietzsche, Der Wille zur Macht: Versucheiner Umwertungaller Werte.ErstesBuch: Der Auswahlin 2 Banden,withan Introduction Nietzsche,Werke: Nihilismus, Absatz2tin Friedrich europaische by Lehmann Cerhard Kroner, 1939), II,318. (Stuttgart: 3 Nietzsche,p. 317.

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368

WILHELM

EMRICH

family, nihilation

wife,

and

occupation. material

Kafka the

seeks

to escape and material

from the

both

the

anof

of the

through

absolute

annihilation abandoned position

the absolute to itself.4

through With this

a totally relativized he occupies?like and

existence,

Nietzsche?a

special

within

the modern

it. In order must delve been with

phenomenon to be able to establish

of nihilism

and our preoccupation with I articulate this more precisely, that nihilism more has always since not only the Orthodox

a bit further. us, of in us,

Dostoevsky's and among a devout that

statement us is all the Christian

surprising, Russian

Dostoevsky salvation Church.

himself Russia,

was but

who from

awaited the

of mankind

He meant thereby that within religion itself a permanent strug? with is that would not even gle "nothingness" taking place, yes, religions exist without the of in all men nihilistic knowledge possibilities existing and in all times. Even the Old Testament not merely fights against idolaters, deride but also all higher against atheists, who their idolize own their own bellies and material interests. And the

values, following reflections on the relationship of being and theological Christian even to a evaluation among mystics positive to its identity with God Himself. This equated can never Buddhism "The with comes absolute appear, nothingness spirit who existence activity, the of the up again being can on with never is the always the philosophical level because any

led nothingness of nothingness, who it In

with

Hegel, existence.

nothingness, be assigned supreme Without

by its very concrete

nature

religious is for Goethe this

category. inseparably there and would tied be up no

negates" itself.

human

spirit values to assert

productive No mystics, sense one,

no striving for supreme can or would want however, Buddhists, word.

perceptions. that the Christian in the modern arises only as and

comes nothingness, worth both nothing, psychic, and moral which

and Goethe were Hegel, In today's linguistic usage, to stand by itself, and makes material values. is why absurdity literature phenomena Everything concepts are the of the and becomes such central, nineteenth

nihilists nihilism everything the

nothing

higher

spiritual, and

"meaningless" as disgust, constantly and

"disgusting," meaninglessness terms turies. in the

boredom, recurring cen?

and nihilistic

twentieth

4 See, forexample,Franz Briefe an FeliceundandereKorrespondenz aus derVerlobungszeit, Kafka, eds. Erich Hellerand Jurgen Born(Frankfurt am Main:Fischer,1967), pp. 617-618, 756.

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KAFKA

AND

LITERARY

NIHILISM

369

In his study, that literary

Experimentum

suae

medictatis? arose Tieck's at the novel

Walther end

Rehm

showed

nihilism

in Germany in Ludwig That and

of the

eighteenth (1794Christ con? was Dead

for example, century, in Jean Paul's 1796), From ceived kas, lished nihilism phenomenon phenomenon, fully them. fateful At the scribes aesthetic writes the the World about and above in 1805), as one 1789-1790

William

Lovell

dream-composition, There later

"Speech is No God,"

of the which

Structure,

all in the novel author

incorporated The Nightwatches unknown. Ludwig Tieck

into the

novel

Sieben(pub?

of Bonaventura

others, possibility, among But their which had to be conquered. rising almost of criticizes to outbreaks doom like of despair, was

and Jean Paul portrayed it as a and described with this wrestling how powershows present novel within Titan as

awareness Paul

impending figures

already in his more

Jean

Roquairol

appearances

of the Zeitgeist,

becoming who

and more

very beginning them as "poetic

of his Introduction nihilists,"

to Aesthetics transform everything Poetic ofthe

(1804),

powerful. he de?

into a futile nihilism, contemporary he

their lawless phantasy. "game" through from the lawless arbitrariness "results here,

the world and is perfectly to selfishly destroy willing Zeitgeist?which in in it the resultant for the universe order to clear a free just playground that God Jean Paul did not originally put the complaint nothingness."6 does not exist into the mouth of the dead Christ, but into the mouth of the dead because of the conviction that already Shakespeare, obviously the world, in Shakespeare's the that becomes danger apparent tragedies in a state of permanent murderous left to itself, as it were, remains "Take God out ofthe universe," writes Jean Paul, "and

self-destruction.

is destroyed, every higher spiritual joy, every love, and only everything the wish for spiritual would and only the devil and the suicide remain, beast But could literary still ask to exist."7 is perfect in the novel Die Nachtwaschen The also with the the author reason word des clearly he nihilism (The himself to remain as the "Echo

Bonaventura identifies wanted ness"

Nightwatches with it, which unknown. The in the Ossuary."

of Bonaventura). was probably ends Men work

why

are puppets,

dolls,

masks,

"nothing? with

s WaltherRehm,"Experimentum suae medietatis: EineStudiezur dichterischen des Unglaubens Gestaltung bei jean Paulund Dostojewski," des FreienDeutschenHochstifts am Main 1936-40 (Halle Frankfurt Jahrbuch a. d. S.: Niemeyer,1940), pp. 237-336. 6 jean Paul,Werke,ed. Norbert Miller,V (Munich: Hanser,1963), p. 31. 7 Rehm,p. 243.

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370

WILHELM

EMRICH

which nously

an

"insane

world absurd

creator" farce,

unvarying The they

a meaningless stages which evokes only endless dead, only their movements in the same

and

monotoand

boredom

disgust. in reality cal roles.

living are always lives

are in reality treading alive, on and

place.

merely illusion; But the dead their nonsensi-

are senselessly, Hamlet

repeatedly

continually writes

celebrating

to Ophelia:

Everything is a role, the role itself and the actor who plays in it, and in him beagain his thoughts and plans and enthusiasms and pranks?everything longs to the moment and escapes quickly, like the word from the lips ofthe actor. Do you want to free yourself from the role, down your own self?? Look, there stands the skeleton, throwing a handful of dust into the air, and now it crumbles away itself;?but mocking laughter follows. That is the world spirit, or the devil?or the echo of nothingness! To be or not to be! How simple I was then, when I raised this question with my finger on my nose, how much simpler were those who asked it after me, and had the wildest ideas of what itall meant. I should have first questioned being about being itself, then non-being would have made sense too. ln those days my theory of immortality was still from that school and I applied it to all categories. Indeed, I was truly afraid of death because of immortality?and by heaven, justly so, if after this boring comedie larmoyante another one like it was to follow?I think it has nothing to do with it!8 With were this both the and content and the structure of nihilistic literature

anticipated Buchner and Grabbe, finally

established. reappear a new

in order the world flows

to reach

form in They appear and Expressionism, again in Naturalism in lonesco climax and Samuel Beckett9: carrousel man up on which the end as aujourney, man,

in extreme

play as a meaninglessly revolving and into the again again beginning; puppet, is actually neither animal, standing live or thing, still10; caught man

on the carrousel in an endless living-dead

tomaton, which who

as an eternally

can

nor die11; permanent

durable

becomes

a normal,

of catastrophe, which presence out of the comic condition; cancelling

8 Die Nachtwachen des Bonaventura, withan Afterword by Adolfvon Grolman Schneider, 1955), (Heidelberg: pp. 134-135. 9 For more detailed rema^s ancjevidence for this thesis see Wilhelm Emrich, "GeorgBuchnerund die modemeLiteratur," in Polemik: Pressefehden undkritische um Prinzipien, Streitschriften, und Methoden Essays Massstabe der Literaturkritik, tristesseim faschistischen Zehaiter" am Main: ChapterIV:"Barocke (Frankfurt II:"Pressekampagne," Athenaum, 1968), pp. 131-172, also Chapter sections"Lamentieren stattkonfrontieren" and "Warum wagensie so wenigi", pp. 33-42. 10 See the interesting of anabgousphenomena in Expressionist and in nineteenth-century examples lyricpoetry French in Kurt und Ceseilschaft Symbolism Mautz,GeorgHeym:Mythologie im Expressionismus am (Frankfurt Main:Athenaum, 1961). 11See Kafka's "Hunter Gracchus" tradition. Evenphenomena figure,whichderivesfroman extensivenihilist like thatof Richard are indebtedto this tradition, albeitthey are guidedby the Wagner's "FlyingDutchman" intention to finda "salvation" fromthis living-dead nihilistic formof existence.See Mautzforfurther examples. Kafka, however,did not cling to this tradition, as indicatedbelow.

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KAFKA

AND

LITERARY

NIHILISM

371

and the tragic tinguishably finally, despair. In Buchner

through the grotesque, one in the indissoluble between formalized

identity

indisthrough which they become union of laughter and terror; and, farce and immediate burlesque dead when the curtain

His play Danton's Julie): No. listen! and peace lying under

goes up. "Danton (to his lover begins with the sentence, in the grave, and the grave People say there is peace are the same thing. If this is so, then in your lap I am already Death the earth. You sweet knell, your grave, breast your lips are bells mound of death, and your your heart

the characters

are already

voice

is my funeral In Act

my grave

my coffin." become spread

3 he says, "The cursed can not phrase: Something And I am something, that is the rub!?Creation has nothing! so much that nothing is empty anymore. is Everything teeming.

has murdered is its wound, we are its drops itself, creation Nothingness of blood, the world is the grave in which it is rotting. We are all buried alive and like kings laid in three?or fourfold under the sky, in coffins, our homes, in our coats and shirts. Indeed, could believe only whoever in annihilation could be helped." And in Act 4 Danton summarizes his with the words, "The Universe is Chaos. despair future god ofthe universe." This is exactly in accord form ofthe Beckett: contemporary plays of Samuel death die. the are already In Beckett's characters present at every moment, the world play End Game reflect the has is the Nothingness with the theme and the catastrophe and

but nevertheless already

we cannot and

exploded,

and incompreperpetually inevitability of their living-dead existence in monotonous hensibility repetitions. But also in such a totally different writer as Gerhart the Hauptmann world creator god appears in almost all the dramas at the same time as slayer, in "nothingness." shall finally die: words, within Kafka so that a way out of the killing can be hoped for only His tragedy f/ectra ends with the words, "The world it like us!" At the end of the tragedy Veland stand the a totally different In the sketches "Er" ("He")

the eternal

"In nothingness some day."12 to this Franz Kafka represents Compared nihilism writes: or vis-a-vis nihilism.

position (1920),

It is a question of the following: Many years ago I was sitting, certainly sadly enough, on the slope of Laurenzius Hill. I tested the wishes that I had for life. The wish that became the most important or most appealing was to

12Wilhelm Emrich, "Der Tragodientypus CerhartHauptmanns," in Protestund Verheissung: Studienzur Klassischen und modernenDichtung,3d ed. (Frankfurt am Main:Athenaum, 1968), pp. 193-205.

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372

WILHELM

EMRICH

gain an attitude towards life (and?this was to be sure necessarily tied up with it?to be able to convince the others of it in writing), in which life would actually keep its natural sharp ups and downs, but at the same time would be recognized with no less clarity than a nothingness, than a dream, than a floating in the air. A nice wish maybe, if I had wished it correctly. Perhaps as a wish to hammer a table together with painstaking workmanship and at the same time to do nothing, but in such a way that one could say "Hammering is nothing to him," but "Hammering is truly hammering to him and at the same time also nothing"; whereby the hammering would have become even more daring, more determined, more real, and, if you want, still crazier. But he could not wish like this at all, because his wish was no wish, it was just a defense, a bourgeoisization of nothingness, a breath of liveliness, that he wanted to give the nothingness, into which he had then barely taken his first conscious steps, but that he already felt as his element. It was in those days a form of farewell, which he took from the illusory world of his youth; besides it had never directly deceived him, but only allowed him to be deceived by the speeches of all surrounding au? thorities. The necessity of the "wish" had been produced in this way.13 Kafka's the nihilistic also "his position, then, differs in a decisive point from the position of

literature

element," world around annihilation

With him nothingness just depicted. into which he inescapably wandered

is to be sure as he left the

illusory authorities absolute should essential ness,

of his youth, him.

saw through the deceptions and lies of all the But he wants to "defend" himself against

remain

of all existence. material The hammering, action, and a real, maybe even a meaningful a real hammering, a nothing? at the same time it is irrevocably activity, although meaninglessness, on the character one so that this simultaneity of "insanity." of reality and takes

an unique when do clear.

nothingness Only position come also

has comprehended the paradoxical nature of Kafka's and meanings of his enigmatic be? structures writings It is just this permanent which he himself self-contradiction, the

always the shapes solved

and painfully bears, that through as a self-contradiction form and meaningful of these For this strength writings. self-contradiction is necessary and indelible. It can never be honestly in a world and therefore in which also the concrete into supreme values have actually with disapall its ac? existence

sees

peared, tivities Kafka ready

empirical nothingness,

into meaninglessness. is primarily concerned with the rescue of this concrete life, al? reduced to nothing, as improbable as this may appear upon first

threatens

to crumble

13Franz eines Kampfes: aus dem Nachlass(Frankfurt am Kafka, Novellen,Skizzen,Aphorismen Beschreibung Main:S. Fischer,1954), pp. 293-294, hereafter cited as B. The followingabbreviations are also used for the workscited below, which are all publishedby S. Fischer:FranzKafka, (1946) E; FranzKafka, Erzahlungen aufdemLande undandere Prosa ausdemNachlass Hochzeitsvorbereitungen (1953)H;Gustav janouch, Gesprache mit Kafka Der Prozess(1953) P; FranzKafka, (1951) 1; FranzKafka, 1910-1923 (1951) T. Tagebucher

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KAFKA

AND

LITERARY

NIHILISM

373

viewing the

his work,

and as much

as the self-critical seems wants

sneering

remark

about

"bourgeoisization and to lead tempt existence

to the

of nothingness" absurd. He

form and a "law" establishing he knows that it is impossible, a supreme court, although will always remain "unknown" and unattainable:

at? to parody this rescue to give concrete human a new "command," meaning, that such a law

It's not idleness, bad will, clumsiness?even though something of all this makes or may be in it, because "vermin is born from nothingness''?which doesn't even make everything fail for me: family life, friendship, marriage, occupation, literature, instead it isthe lack of ground, air, commandment. It is my task to create these, not that I can then catch up on the things missed, but so that I haven't missed anything, because this task is just as good as another. It is actually even the most original task or at least a reflection of it, just as one can suddenly step into the light of the distant sun by reachingthe top of height in the rarefied air.14 This is also no exceptional task, it has certainly already been frequently presented whether indeed to such an extent, I don't know. I haven't brought any of the demands of life along, as far as I know, but only the most common human weaknesses. With this this respect it is a gigantic strength?I have strongly taken up weakness?in the negative aspect of my times, which is certainly very close to me, against which I never have the right to fight, but to represent it in a certain sense. I had no inherited share in the slight positive element, as well as in the uttermost negative element, tilting over to the positive. I was not led into life by the already heavily sinking hand of Christianity, like Kierkegaard, and I haven't caught the last tip of fleeing Jewish prayer mantle like the Zionists. I am the end or the beginning. (H 120f) It is a decisive himself with factor that Kafka here unreservedly clearly identifies

the nihilism

tions

possibility with critically means

them. rejects

of renewing If one

that he no longer sees the smallest or even of establishing rela? traditions religious follows his thought trend to the end, then it even to form today's world and society anew by

of his times,

any chance

of a negative dialectic be it the modern Protestant dialectical of a Kierkegaard or Karl Barth all the way to Paul Tillich, or the theology negative, Adorno. "in socio-critical Their dialectic into dialectic nevertheless of Walter hopes Benjamin for a reversal since which that and Theodor W. ofthe

negative is perma-

extremis"

something

nently negating even if?exactly never formulated,

everything as with may

positive, in existence dialectical appear

dialectic

is socially is never

calamitous, positive reachable is

the

theologians?this materialized,

never

14All throughKafka's workwe find the symbolsof the quest for "breathable air" in a world in which one cannotbreathe, for "ediblefood" which contemporary also the societydoes not possess(DerHungerkunstler, in the Forschungen reflections eines Hundeson the originof "food"), fordwellable"soil,"whichexistsnowhere FranzKafka,6th ed. (Der Bau). More preciseanalysesof these symbolsmay be found in WilhelmEmrich, am Main:Athenaum, (Frankfurt 1970).

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374

WILHELM

EMRICH

through

concrete

actions,15

but can

manifest

itself only

as "utopia,"

as a

as an ever-present of true humanity, true happiness, postulate, concept or true undistorted move? humaneness out of the immanent dialectical ments and changes of human these collected history and society. of modern and thought just is not valid to in the sense of a from Ernst

Kafka hope. the

opposes For him they He

possibilities

times.

is not

are a long-lost play. His "battle" of the times" a "critic neither

conservative Tocqueville Topitsch and

of the times (as we practiced pessimistic critique to Arnold Oswald down Gehlen, through Spengler Toynbee), nor in the sense of the himself so-called of the times. He feels critique of this time which is criticized he has strongly absorbed.

progressive

revolutionary resentative" tive qualities" Kafka writes:

rather to be a "rep? whose by everyone "nega? sketches "?r" ("He")

In the

He doesn't live for the sake of his personal life, he doesn't think for the sake of his personal thinking. For him it's as if he were living and thinking under the coercion of a family, which itself is teeming with life?and brain power, for which he however represents a formal necessity according to some law unknown to him. He cannot be let off free because of this unknown family and these unknown laws. (B 295) Therefore, He does or even and Kafka wants neither to reform nor to revolutionize society.

not want

to commend

which a panacea through He much rather wants crises.

to it any historical-philosophical recipe be freed from its sicknesses it could

describe

and to to recognize society simply it is it in a letter to Max Brod, "... it as it is, or, as he formulated to sean the whole human and animal ideals. moral the to recognize kingdom I am, . . . in summary court of jusand animal is at the same time there is kingdom the or injustice,

my endgoal their basic therefore, tice."16 the human

preferences, concerned

desires, only human with and

human

For him the and

animal of justice.

community For in this for justice

animal

court

motivation, seeking judgment, or absurdity Our reflections of an occurrence or of a thought. meaning our and inner monologues to motivate are nothing more than attempts own and others' and condemn. lives, to justify or accuse "Everything to the court" it says in the novel The Trial (181). But this human belongs and animal court of justice is also totally disoriented. Its court proce-

incessant

15See Theodor W. Adorno's of the activepoliticalinvolvement of his own social revolutionary sharpcriticism who had been influenced inStichworte: zu Theorie und Praxis," Kritische students, by him, in his "Marginalien Modelle2, Suhrkamp edition No. 347 (Frankfurt am Main:Suhrkamp, 1969). 16FranzKafka, am Main:Fischer,1958), p. 178. Briefe1902-1924 (Frankfurt

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KAFKA

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375

dures

and

der and court. supreme founded

continually absurdities. No one religiously

records

run in all directions knows the definitive times also it might so human

in a disaster lawbook, seemed the

or disorhighest to be still a and

But in ancient,

oriented

there

and, correspondingly, judge order of justice, even though commander's modern, every new form order and the ever

a clearly be dreadful Penal

organized

and pitiless,17 Colony." But cheerful" Therethe most of

like the old under

of justice

in "The and

"always destroyed. "For miles only

commandant

of courtly chaotic

justice

is finally

upon production goes ambitious started. No pause was pounding hands. The arrival of our snake was already till then even

on with

cheerfulness: permitted, announced

a change

had to be pounded to dust, everything the smallest into dust. The Mankind (T 525f). pebble" disintegrates workers become themselves "snake feed," the food of the devil snake, whose which arrival in the is announced final analysis at the end of each work workday, indeed, times all earthly in modern is being

for the evening, not our snake tolerates

for

of this vision of Kafka's can no longer be outdegree done. The whole modern world is invalid, workaday produces nothing? in the ness with pauseless the total of all work, pulverization meaning name of evil, which has become absolute. to this working obligated world that is being pulverized into nothingness. He feels himself tied to unknown laws which could form this workaday he also indeed, world; Kafka feels responsible and directly seeks the "unknown family" of this order new human race, that is, for a still this self-annihilating meaningful society. his despair he clings this because firmly to his own writing, as he formulates a formal for modern it, represents necessity to some law unknown to him. according does Kafka this mean? Wherein lies this formal reflected necessity? Again and has felt and on his exceptional posi? in his sketches thus already of out of the "current of the like all the others. within Still

accomplished. The nihilistic

undiscovered, Despite writing, society What

again, tion within 1910, times" This

modern

in which (T 22), extreme

thoroughly literature and society; he says that he has stepped is swimming excites like distance to think "the

he no longer critical and

in this stream extreme

inability extreme

to live clarity,

everybody

to be sure, the despair else. But it also provides writes in 1921, "who

because

man,"

as Kafka

17 See Kafka's Die zwei Baume.das unbegrundete diaryentry:"WutenGottesgegen die Menschenfamilie. Verbot" (T 502).

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376

WILHELM

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doesn't over hand other lifetime Here Kafka's

come his fate he can things and

to grips with a little?it gather and the

life alive,

needs

one

hand

to ward with because he

off despair the other he sees in his

very imperfectly,?but happens in what he sees among the ruins, than the others do, after all (T 545).

more

is dead

real survivor" extremely

in an

particular into

manner, yet sharply marking disconcerting the old of the nihilistic position, living-dead topos man no living-dead but becomes of time, circles longer a man who

is reversed without

purpose and becomes the survivor.18 its meaning as a In the sketch "At Night" Kafka describes humanity contemporary "In secure in "Houses," itself sleeping mass which imagines sleeping realizes beds, beneath a secure roof," while in reality, thrown with it lies down "in where a desolate formerly region . . . under a cold sky on cold earth, And he closes one had been standing." must One awake? are you person "Why Mankind has been

its opposite. The in the carrousel

to himself: a question it is said" (B 116). be awake,

surwithout consciousness, unsuspectingly, sleeping are cold and for wasteland to unambiguous "nothingness," rendering is "The wasteland words: Nietzsche's of nihilism. Remember pictures one the is the lone But Kafka himself watchman, only waking growing." who, need hungry free like no other, has, through hopes, and animal this nihilism, utopias. totally swept away the last remainder of illusions, human But just this signifies: is what "Only his formal forward,

for the animal,

life, even lead general, the snow,

breathable does the way air, sustenance, if it be beyond life. You are leading the masses, great tall the mountain the despairing lying under passes through And who will give you the no one else can discover. which

community lead to edible

He who gives you the clarity of vision" (T 572). strength? of the passes So what Kafka is after is the discovery lying under the lead to a free from all which of our century wastes and hidden snowy life, to breathable existence wastelands "The time" worthy are also air, to edible of a human in other nourishment, being. We to an that is, to a purpose, know that icy cold snowy as in The Castle most or in "frost of our more wretched under

writings of this

of Kafka, such of the

Country (E 153).

Doctor," In the

symbols middle

snow?or,

accurately,

18HereKafka thatis takesup again,froma criticalpointof view, the nihilisticmotifof "senselesswalking," on the verysamespot";Kurt Mautz(note10 above)hasthoroughly documented and reallya "continual treading of the nineteenth century through Expres? analyzedthis motif,which can be tracedfromthe nihilisticliterature sionismdown to SamuelBeckett.

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KAFKA

AND

LITERARY

NIHILISM

377

this snow?Kafka and this testifies consciousness unattainable Nevertheless

wants to the that here such

to find the ways illusionless a free life

which

lead

out of it, of course;

in the complete clarity of his vision, it is lies "beyond life": therefore, into the beyond

on earth. nor does he regress on its life, gaily splashing way, which?somewhat Castle?amuses itself in the steaming baths in the beneath the masses of snow. Rather, he holds life his neither

he escapes

into the unsuspecting as in the novel The village huts, almost

buried

to the permanent to ways to a free steadfastly self-contradiction, which is and remains The search itself is his task, unattainable. inescapable tangible search," duty, result, as is stated even if he knows if it is clear in his early which are to that him it is fruitless, that he will will lead even

to no in the

"perish

The search, the decisive All

the examination, categories

ofa Fight" (B 59). "Description are the experiment?these the research, work, determine the form and content In the of his

works.

his works of a Dog"

"Researches tally tested

the through and also of meditation and practice dogs), religious truth out of this world of lies, where no one is found truth science" "to ascend "than into the one more lofty freedom" today, anything "another made story tions

one large experiment. story basically are questioned and experimenall possibilities of art (musical of science, means and methods to come over to the can at from whom (B 256), else" to one arrive which In the

discover

practiced than

a final science, (B 290).

freedom "The and

honored

highly

fearlessly Wall the

in endless are investigated, reflec? of in a which one can live experiments, erecting building In the stories and securely. of the Building of the Chinese to erect a structure the of problems arising through attempt Building" structure, in which mankind can exist

all possibilities

or a heavens-storming humanity with a meaning, are unfolded

and reflected accord? upon. The "laws," to which live are and a is reviewed, ing people compulsory empire searched for which could guarantee a lasting order worthy of mankind. In the novel The Castle, the earthly land in which we all live in our love our profession (K.'s activity relationships, confusion of the officials, who incessantly in the village school), or in the seek to and regulate register

we think, feel, and do, although to succeed it never seems everything with reason and insight, is measured in the painfully questiongrinding K. ing by the surveyor Kafka could he, in spite never be freed, defeats of such of all the out "let go" from and absurdities and these researches, must because necessarily which

always develop ultimate and most

extreme

questions was points,

experiments firmly convinced

at the aiming that an abso-

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378

WILHELM

EMRICH

lute "law," be the

an indestructible

court,

exists,

that nihilism

therefore

cannot

of our times, not the final pitiless truth: "Man can not live without a lasting trust in something indestructible within himself" of his writing to make this (H 44). He felt it to be the real obligation indestructibility its unknown free of within nature. illusion, ourselves It cannot of all conscious become false laws as an existence?in without the spite we of conscious and orders destruc? find

last word

tion, those

in which

ourselves, Franz the sense

lies which

unmasking out of the promise escapes Kafka was the most radical nihilist of our time, of those literary as it were, nihilists who fell but in the sense

without

the "choir

of lies"

(H 343), and especially nihilistic chaos. however, not in

its mouthpiece, who continuously is what the word

fights it by unmasking His statement, "radical" means. denotes which his come

prey to nihilism, becoming of a critically man observing its roots?that it, who uncovers "I am the end because or the he

beginning,"

exactly

repels some? and hopes, or social revolutionary consolations they be religious he for of what in the sense of Ernst Bloch's example; Principle," "Hope He has not conis the beginning, not because he conquered nihilism. quered it. For nothingness was his own "element," of and he forcefully the negative elements represented in nihilism its core and his time. But because Kafka, comprehending it and also did not want to conquer enticed the scope, the final, definitive under dom, law," This the masses that in us there and with out of his researches that nihilism is not knowledge truth and reality of our human existence, that buried of snow exists there a court are passes at hand which lead to free? which the "unknown is ineradicable, human family." no be a transcendental longer us from the past. It lies within we do not know and that or ever It could of the concrete

all consolations

He is the end position. from the past, it matters

not whether

it an "unknown is no

God, can longer is the This which reality. abyss separates ourselves as the indestructible element nevertheless should man?and volutionary also remains form the present within us,

instance

that

demanding. formation

"beginning"

for a new

animal-community?after forms have failed. "The

all other religious re? and social fact that nothing else exists, except

the spiritual world, takes world 46). The material The so-called intellectual

(H hope away from us but gives us certainty" is totally annihilated and dissolved into dust. world remarked animal because of world-views on in his and ideologies is, as of the

Hegel already shrewdly in truth a "spiritual Spirit," ests and power-fights, and annihilated. Kafka's

realm," of this

"Phenomenology in animal inter? enveloped at the same time is totally nothing but the spiritual

statement

that there

exists

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KAFKA

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379

world

signifies?also

in Hegel's

and Kant's

sense

of categorical,

lawgivsub? but is it. It

ing imperative?that, stance of man can our only "takes

on the contrary, never be touched reality, even

the remaining, indestructible nihilism and relativism, by if we ourselves do not know

real imperishable from

us of illusions, us," hope away in the jungle constitute a realm of freedom and justice "gives us the certainty" else counts else that in the midst and exists except ofthis jungle the spiritual

it robs

of being able to fight of history. It fight?not world, beyond that every? when in his a play,

it?nothing thing

Exactly conversation Saul,

remains inevitably prey to nihilism. in this sense did Kafka remain true to his Judaism, with Gustav Janouch about the latter's

plan to write

he declared: The correct word leads; the incorrect one misleads. It is no accident that the Bible is called scripture. It is the voice of the Jewish people, which is not something belonging historically to yesterday, but something totally con? temporary. In your drama it is however treated as an historically mumified fact, and this is false. If I understand you correctly, then you want to bring today's masses onto the stage. They have nothing in common with the Bible. This is the core of your drama. The people of the Bible are the summary of individuals through a law. The masses of today, however, oppose every summary. They strive apart on grounds of inner law-lessness. This is the driving force of their restless movement. The masses hurry, run, go storming through time. Where to? From where do they come? No one knows. The more they march, the less they reach a goal. They uselessly use up their strength. They think that they are going. In so doing they only in place?into plunge?marching empty space. That's all. (J 103f)

Kafka center

had

asked

before,

"And

the

center

of gravity? Janouch

Where answered:

is the

of gravity

of the world

in this drama?"

"It lies down below in the mass basis of the people. In spite of the single individual figures it is a drama of the anonymous multitude." Franz Kafka drew his thick eyebrows together, pushed his lower lip out a bit, wet his lips with the tip of his tongue and said, without looking at me: "I think that you are proceeding from premises. Anonymous means the same as nameless. But the Jewish people has never been nameless. On the contrary! It is the chosen people of a personal God, that can never sink to the low level of an anonymous, and therefore spiritless mass, if it holds fast to the fulfillment of the law. Only through the fall from the form-giving law can mankind be? come a gray, formless and, therefore, nameless mass. But then there is no longer an above and below; life flattens to mere existence; there is no drama, no fight, just the using up of material, decay. This, however, is not the world of the Bible and Judaism." I defended myself. "I'm not con? cerned with Judaism and the Bible. The biblical material is just a means of representation of today's masses for me." Kafka shook his head. "Exactly! What you want is not right. You can't make life into an allegory of death. That would be sinful!" "What do you call sin?" "Sin is the backing away from your own mission. Misunderstanding, impatience and indolence? this is sin. A writer's task is to carry over his isolated mortality into immortal life, the accidental into the lawful. He has a prophetic task!" (j 102f)

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