Inhabiting the Discourses of Belonging; Franz Kafka and Yoko Tawada

Authors

Aviv Hilbig-Bokaer, Clark UniversityFollow

Faculty Mentor Contact Information

Robert Tobin

Keywords

Franz Kafka, Yoko Tawada, Subaltern, Monolingualism, German Identity, Deleuze, Guattari, Minor Literature

Abstract

Inhabiting the Discourses of Belonging; Franz Kafka and Yoko Tawada examines the role of language in creating the identity of the foreigner in German prose. Writing at opposite ends of the 20^th century, Kafka and Tawada serve as harbingers for a broader sense of alienation that comes with writing as an Other. Using lenses provided by Spivak, Butler, Said and Deluze, this essay surveys the broader cultural concepts and theoretical implications of the notion of the metaphorical subaltern that can be created in prose, and the particularities presented by the German language in creating and articulating this identity. This essay examines six texts, three by Kafka and three by Tawada, placing them in contrast with one another. Ultimately this essay seeks to shift the hermeneutics of reading the Kantian Ding an sich of subaltern as hopeless, rather to see the these six texts as a plea for understanding.

Recommended Citation

Hilbig-Bokaer, Aviv (2016) "Inhabiting the Discourses of Belonging; Franz Kafka and Yoko Tawada," Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ): Vol. 2, Article 5.
Available at: https://commons.clarku.edu/surj/vol2/iss1/5