Notes on The castle, by Franz Kafka: subjunctive, subjective, objective

Abstract

The essay starts with a formal analysis of kafkaesque temporality in The Castle, showing how its pronounced use of the subjunctive mode, among other narrative strategies, helps to produce the characteristic uncanny effect of the novel. The third-person narration, closely tied to K.’s experience, describes plot events only to then cast doubt upon them, based on hyperinterpreted hypotheses and assumptions from the perspective of a stranger to that community. The facts crumble before the one seeking formal confirmation of the right to stay. Thus, by representing and exaggerating to the point of absurdity the distinctive characteristics of modern temporality, Kafka manages to create an original narrative focus that describes the existential and metaphysical insecurity of historical figures affected by the Great Wars, such as refugees and immigrants, whom the protagonist K. somewhat embodies.