Abstract
Elizabeth Boa (DVjs 65/3) proposes a “resistant” and “gendered” reading of Kafka’s Auf der Galerie as a means to a social-critical reading. This reply argues that her deconstructive strategies fail to discover the realities of social and theatrical history which lie behind Kafka’s metaphors.
Zusammenfassung
Elizabeth Boa (DVjs 65/3) empfiehlt “resistance” und “gendered reading” als radikal sozialkritische Verständnismöglichkeiten von Kafkas Auf der Galerie. Ihr dekonstruktives Verfahren erweist sich aber als unfähig, die sozial- und theatergeschichtliche Wirklichkeit aufzudecken, die hinter Kafkas Metaphorik steckt.
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References
Elizabeth Boa, “Kafka’s Auf der Galerie: a resistent reading”, DVjs 65/3 (1991), 486–501.
It is interesting that Boa earlier (quite rightly) treated the notion of subjective ‘reality’ as a truism deserving only a couple of lines. See Elizabeth Boa and J.H. Reid, Critical Strategies, London 1972, 145.
Raymond May, Literary Meaning: From Phenomenology to Deconstruction, Oxford 1984, 211f.
See John M. Ellis, Against Deconstruction, Princeton 1989, 153–56.
Compare Luce Irigaray, Amant Marine de Friedrich Nietzsche, Paris 1980, 88: Nietzsche appears to categorise women as beings “sans qualités propres… Pour — le jeu”. This is just how deconstruction treats it chosen texts.
For this pathos of unknowablity, see Jacques Derrida, Éperons: Les Styles de Nietzsche, Chicago 1979, 122–126: “We can never be sure of knowing what Nietzsche intended to say as he noted down these words. Or even if he wanted anything at all to happen… We shall never know. Or at least, we can never know that we know — we must take account of this possibility, of this powerlessness.” The stress is Derrida’s; the obsession with authorical intention is characteristic.
Catherine Belsey, Critical Practice, London 1980, 139.
“Derrick is in essence having a conversation with himself, about a conversation he once had with himself… Derrida is writing a monodráma… it is Derrida’s writing, isn’t it? But which Derrida?” and so on. From: Michael Pinsky, review of J. Derrida, Cinders, in Criticism 35/1 (1993), 134–36. The reviewer fails to suggest why “Derrida’s own project” (i.e. Derrida) should interest anyone but Derrida.
Jacques Derrida, “Before the Law”, Acts of Literature, trans. Derek Attridge, London 1992, 181–220, 183.
See J. M. Hawes, “The Psychology of Power in Heinrich Mann’s Der Untertan and Kafka’s Der Prozeß”, Oxford German Studies 18/19 (1990), 119–31.
Erika Fischer-Lichte, Kurze Geschichte des deutschen Theaters, Tübingen 1993, 264–72.
Gusti Adler, Max Reinhardt. Sein Leben, Salzburg 1964, 64. Quoted in Fischer-Lichte (op. cit.), 276.
Debora B. Ghay, “Rereading Barbara Smith: Black Feminist Criticism and the Category of Experience”, New Literary History 24/3 (1993), 635–652, 641.
David Trotter, “Editorial”, Critical Quarterly 35/3 (1993).
Ritchie Robertson, “Edwin Muir as Critic of Kafka”, MLR 79 (1984), 638–652, 651.
T.J. Reed, “Communicating or Theorising? Some thoughts for Andrew Bowie”, Oxford German Studies 20/21 (1991–92), 202–212.
David Lodge, Modern Criticism and Theory, London 1988, xi.
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Hawes, J.M. Blind Resistance? A reply to Elizabeth Boa’s ‘Resistent Reading’ of Kafka’s Auf der Galerie. Dtsch Vierteljahrsschr Literaturwiss Geistesgesch 69, 324–336 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374569
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374569