Prepare a research paper on Kafka’s The Trial, discussing its representation of justice and the legal system.
The rough stance should be that the legal system being convoluted (and thus difficult to understand) is a tool for the state or power structure to maintain power.
Must use this version of the book for book quotes/citations: Franz Kafka, The Trial: A New Translation Based on the Restored Text, trans. Breon Mitchell, Schocken 1998.
Quote from the translator: http://www.conjunctions.com/print/article/franz-kafka-c30
Also, use Kafka’s Law “The Trial” and American Criminal Justice – Robert P. Burns as a source.
Possible concepts:
-death “like a dog”
-bureaucracy reduces people to animal
-weaponizing the law in a way that dehumanizes people
-law as dehumanizing, law as convoluted, law as absurd
-gap between justice and law
-cynical view of the system
Throughout the story, there is a lack of explanation for what Joseph K has done. One expects to find out that there was an error, that he was mistaken for someone who did do something horrible. This doesn’t happen in the novel, one doesn’t find out about the nature of the accusation. The reader doesn’t know more about the case at the end of the novel. This can feel like a lack of a deeper significance. Yet, the world Kafka represents is modelled on the so-called real world. When Joseph K seeks a reason for his arrest and a way of rendering himself innocent in the eyes of those who have charged him with a crime, the true nature of the legal system is revealed.
-Very rough thesis concept- needs better wording: Kafka’s view of the law in The Trial is cynical, presenting the system as purposefully convoluted, dehumanizing and absurd; the legal system being difficult to understand is a tool for the state to maintain power.
Include Kafka’s own experience as a lawyer and its impact on The Trial:
https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5029&context=journal_articles#:~:text=Kafka%20was%20employed%20there%20as,full%20time%20for%20the%20Institute.
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