The typical interpretations of Franz Kafka's "The Trial" as a modernist, existentialist work highlighting a godless world face criticism from Slavoj Žižek. Žižek argues that these interpretations overlook the significant role of the Court, which he believes fills the void of the absent God and emphasizes Kafka's portrayal of individuals within a society organized by the symbolic order.
Contrary to traditional modernism, Žižek asserts that Kafka's work aligns more with critical postmodernism. Recent analyses of "The Trial" adopt poststructuralist theories, particularly Michel Foucault's power/knowledge framework. Scholars, such as Jo Bogaerts, view Josef K.'s experience as a commentary on postmodern, bureaucratic society, drawing on Foucault's concepts to understand the Court's control and Kafka's depiction of totalitarian regimes.
Bureaucratic power is evident in both the bank and the court, with officials identified by position, emphasizing the systemic nature of power. The Court's unyielding bureaucratic grip is symbolized by the perpetual trials described by Kafka.
Examining the Court through a Foucauldian lens reveals its resemblance to a power/knowledge grid, subjecting individuals to constant surveillance. Despite initial resistance, Josef K. voluntarily assumes the Court's power, making the trials an integral part of his existence, illustrating the insidious nature of power consumption in the narrative.
Žižek's anecdote about a foreigner's perpetual indebtedness to the Swiss government parallels Josef K.'s eternal indebtedness to the Court in cases of apparent acquittal or protraction of proceedings, aligning with Foucault's understanding of bureaucratic surveillance and disciplinary coercion.
The postmodern interpretation of "The Trial" moves away from the traditional modernist perspective, employing poststructuralist theories to highlight Kafka's depiction of bureaucratic power and societal control, with the Court as a central symbol in understanding the narrative's complexities.
In this analysis, a post-structural reading of Franz Kafka's "The Trial" is acknowledged, but a strict Foucauldian interpretation is criticized for lacking a sufficient explanation of how individuals become subjects within the bureaucratic system. The author argues that Foucault's dismissal of the psychic dimension as chimerical hinders a complete understanding of subject formation. Joan Copjec, in a Lacanian psychoanalytic context, suggests that Foucault's rejection of a transcendent subject limits his ability to define the generative principle of subjectivity, resulting in an incomplete analysis.
Both Copjec and Slavoj Žižek contend that Foucault overlooks the fact that individuals, like Josef K., are already subjects before interacting with the system. Žižek argues that positive, material relations within society do not create belief; instead, external customs serve as a material support for the subject's unconscious. A Lacanian/Žižekian psychoanalytic intervention is deemed necessary to address the shortcomings in Foucault's theory of power/knowledge.
The symbolic order, as described in Lacanian psychoanalysis, is considered crucial for subjectivity. The entry into the symbolic order gives individuals their subjecthood, making them subjects before becoming part of an administered body. Desire and lack inherent to subjectivity are emphasized, with the symbolic order working efficiently to provide an imaginary wholeness, protecting individuals from traumatic encounters with the Real.
In this sense, Foucault's theory cannot work without the Lacanian/Žižekian intervention, arguing for a more comprehensive reading of "The Trial." This involves considering Lacanian subject formation and the unconscious, addressing guilt and anxiety in the text, and interpreting specific scenes through a psychoanalytic lens. The analysis aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of Josef K.'s unconscious experience as a subject in relation to the big Other represented by the Court.
In Kafka's "The Trial," Josef K. faces a profound dilemma due to the omnipresence of the Lacanian big Other, symbolized as the Court and its constitutive lack. Contrary to the notion of a godless and absurd world, Slavoj Žižek argues that God, or the big Other, is uncomfortably close, evident in the Court's actions.
The collapse of symbolic efficiency doesn't mean freedom for Josef K.; rather, he grapples with the big Other's inherent incompleteness. Žižek emphasizes that the obscene judges represent God's presence, challenging the idea of an absent God in Kafka's universe.
Guilt and anxiety play a significant role in the novel. Josef K.'s encounter with the guard Franz reveals a reverse interpellation, where Josef's guilt attracts the law to him. Psychoanalytically, this reversal is interpreted through the Lacanian split subject, where guilt stems from the gap between the actual and ideal self mediated by the superego.
Žižek describes bureaucracy's reliance on the "constitutive guilt of the subject." Josef K.'s unconscious guilt, arising from the inability to fulfill an ideal identity, becomes a tool for bureaucratic control. The bureaucratic machine thrives on the inherent inconsistency of the law, exploiting the subject's inevitable violations.
The Lacanian interpretation deepens the understanding of guilt in "The Trial." Josef K.'s unconscious, generating guilt and anxiety, mirrors the superego's role. This dynamic, absent in Foucault's and Althusser's theories, showcases the critical revision that psychoanalysis brings. Guilt, stemming from the gap between perceived and ideal identity, opens individuals to ideological interpellation.
In an exchange with a priest, the novel suggests that all subjects are always already guilty due to the fundamental lack in the symbolic order. Guilt becomes a constitutive aspect of subjectivity, and individuals, split between conscious and unconscious selves, may deny guilt consciously while the superego, residing in the unconscious, knows otherwise.
In Kafka's "The Trial," there are two crucial scenes involving doors and interactions with doorkeepers. In one, Josef K. searches for a courtroom, knocking on doors, and encounters a washwoman who guides him. In another, a priest recounts a parable about a man seeking entry to the law through a door guarded by a doorkeeper.
Slavoj Žižek interprets these scenes as inverse stories. Josef K.'s encounter represents the "vital domain" of the law, while the parable illustrates the "judicial domain." The inconsistency of the big Other (symbolic order) splits the law, leading to a trespassing between these domains.
This understanding helps interpret a later event where K. hears groans from a lumber room. His testimony about guards' transgressions exposes an inconsistency in the law, leading to a beating to restore a sense of consistency.
The vital underside of the law, symbolized by the Court, parallels the superego in individuals' unconscious. Like the split subject asking, "What does the other want from me?" the law, representing the big Other, doesn't want anything. Each person has their own door to the law, projecting their desires onto the big Other.
Žižek argues that the decline of symbolic efficiency makes the big Other visible, disrupting individuals' lives. The split subject, essential for social order, also causes trauma and identity destabilization. In a scene at a chapel, K.'s response to the priest's call reflects doubt about his subjective identity, emphasizing the consequences of encountering the symbolic order's inconsistency.
The traumatic encounter with the symbolic order's inconsistency leads to anxiety and doubt, symbolized by K.'s hesitation about his name. Žižek sees this as the forced actualization of the fantasy of being, a humiliating violence undermining an individual's identity. Ideology then comes into play, serving to patch gaps in the divided subject created by encountering the inconsistency.
Conclusion
In Kafka's "The Trial," Slavoj Žižek suggests that the story isn't just a fantasy image of social reality but a portrayal of the fantasy inherent in our social reality. This fantasy arises due to a fundamental lack in human reality mediated through language, pushing the symbolic order to construct a fantasy reality within the imaginary realm.
Throughout the novel, I've explored aspects benefiting from a psychoanalytic approach, such as K.'s increasing paranoia, the obscenity of the Court, and interactions with characters like the corn merchant, Block. Now, let's consider Josef K.'s failure to resist the system.
Josef K. represents a split subject within the symbolic order, faithfully following the rules of the big Other (regulatory force shaping identity). However, his efforts fall short because he doesn't recognize the set of unspoken rules—the obscene underside to the juridical law. Despite facing this inconsistency, K. refuses to accept its existence or his guilt.
K.'s death is not a result of succumbing to bureaucratic power, as one might argue. Instead, I interpret it as a metaphorical death caused by rejecting subjectivity within the symbolic order. K. fails to accept the symbolic contract, making him unintelligible within the symbolic order.
His fatal error wasn't resisting the Court but resisting in a way that rejected the symbolic order altogether. Žižek argues that acknowledging the symbolic order's inconsistency and finding a way to live within it is crucial. K.'s inability to articulate a modus vivendi within the struggling subject position becomes his undoing.
Although K. fails in the end, the psychoanalytic interpretation allows for the possibility of resistance within the symbolic order. While K. succumbs to the trauma of the Real, recognizing the fundamental inconsistency in the symbolic order creates space for a resistant subject. K.'s failure doesn't mean a dismissal of psychoanalysis but rather highlights the need for individuals to engage and struggle within the symbolic order, offering hope for a path out of ideological entrapment.
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