1
Assistant Professor of Theology Department, , university of Gonbadkavous, Iran
2
assistant Professor of Literature Department, University of Gonbadkavous, Iran
10.48308/kj.2024.236345.1262
Abstract
This paper, through an interdisciplinary and comparative study, seeks to uncover the connection between Foucault’s approach to the concept of power and Kafka’s perspective in his novel The Trial. The point of convergence between Foucault and Kafka can be found in the concept of biopolitics, where life itself becomes the subject of politics. The emergence of biopolitics marks the distinction between the modern world and the traditional one. In the pre-modern world, power manifested itself in the figure of the executioner and in the moment of death. However, modern power engages in the management of the living and free subject. The case study of this research is Kafka’s The Trial. The character K. (the protagonist) is entangled in the same panoptic power that Foucault describes in his works—a power that pursues not just a specific criminal act, but the entirety of the criminal's life. This is why K. is never accused of a specific crime; instead, he is compelled to narrate and bring to light his entire life, from childhood to the present. According to Foucault, the more modern power hides itself, the more it brings the lives of the masses into the light. Similarly, in Kafka’s novel, K. never gains access to the court, which remains hidden from his view until the end. The court, like Foucault’s diffuse power, is omnipresent and has no fixed location. This paper demonstrates that this omnipresent power is not a theological force but the very biopolitics that Foucault speaks of.
daniyali, A., & smaeeli, M. (2024). Abstract: Modern Bio-Politics: From Foucault to Kafka (Case Study: The Trial). Shinakht (A Persian Word Means Knowledge), 17(1), 73-90. doi: 10.48308/kj.2024.236345.1262
MLA
aref daniyali; Morad smaeeli. "Abstract: Modern Bio-Politics: From Foucault to Kafka (Case Study: The Trial)". Shinakht (A Persian Word Means Knowledge), 17, 1, 2024, 73-90. doi: 10.48308/kj.2024.236345.1262
HARVARD
daniyali, A., smaeeli, M. (2024). 'Abstract: Modern Bio-Politics: From Foucault to Kafka (Case Study: The Trial)', Shinakht (A Persian Word Means Knowledge), 17(1), pp. 73-90. doi: 10.48308/kj.2024.236345.1262
VANCOUVER
daniyali, A., smaeeli, M. Abstract: Modern Bio-Politics: From Foucault to Kafka (Case Study: The Trial). Shinakht (A Persian Word Means Knowledge), 2024; 17(1): 73-90. doi: 10.48308/kj.2024.236345.1262
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