On the threshold. Levels of Experience in Kafka's Vor dem Gesetz

Abstract

Kafka's parable Vor dem Gesetz shows how Kafka's protagonists' existential performance has broken down into two heterogeneous levels of experience: a bodily-corporeal individuality and their social being. In view of this dilemma, it can be asked to what extent a third level of experience, the process of writing itself, can offer a way out.

Keywords

• Franz Kafka
• individuality
• sociality
• literary writing