Agamben's joyful Kafka : finding freedom beyond subordination / Anke Snoek.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed March 30, 2016).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Both Giorgio Agamben and Franz Kafka are best known for their gloomy political worldview. A cautious study of Agamben?s references on Kafka, however, reveals another dimension right at the intersection of their works: a complex and unorthodox theory of freedom. The inspiration emerges from Agamben?s claims that?it is a very poor reading of Kafka?s works that sees in them only a summation of the anguish of a guilty man before the inscrutable power?. Virtually all of Kafka?s stories leave us puzzled about what really happened. Was Josef K., who is butchered like a dog, defeated? And what about.

Kafka's legacy -- Agamben's legacy -- Agamben's reading of Kafka -- Agamben's unorthodoxy -- Kafka's hope: A way out -- Agamben's hope: Profane messianism and potentiality -- Agamben's goal: Fulfilment of the metaphysical tradition -- Kafka defended against his interpreters -- How to read this book -- 1. Strategies in Response to Law (1) -- Introduction -- The law that is in force without significance -- Kafka's messianic inversion -- 2. Strategies in Response to Law (2) -- Introduction -- The ruse of the man from the country -- The self-slander of Joseph K. -- Bucephalus' study -- 3. Strategies in Response to Bare Life -- Introduction -- The creation of bare life -- The indistinguishability of law and life in The Castle -- Kafka's destruction of paradise -- Kafka's creaturely lives -- 4. Strategies in Response to the `Work of Man' -- Introduction -- Determining the `work of man' -- Kafka's `work cage' -- Odradek's being without purpose -- The being without work of the assistants and messengers -- The irreparability of the assistants -- Sancho Panza's saving of Dulcinea -- 5. Strategies in Response to Activism -- Introduction -- The compulsion of activism -- The gestures of the Oklahoma theatre -- Joseph K.'s shame -- The `as not' of the parable `On Parables' -- 6. Strategies in Response to the Sacrality of Life -- Introduction -- The sacrality of life -- Kafka's limbo -- The steps of the land surveyor -- Kafka's new Kabbalah: Redemption for God, the count and the judges -- 7. Strategies in Response to Language -- Introduction -- Language as presupposition and exclusion -- The return of the person in suspended animation -- The impatience of literature -- Kafka's becoming language and magical names -- The justness of the officer in the penal colony -- 8. Strategies in Response to Time (1) -- Introduction -- Time as chronological compulsion -- Kafka's art: Perfect nihilism as the ground of our existence -- A free life in the shadow of the Great Wall of China -- The mighty paw of transmissibility -- Odradek's Nachleben -- The closed fist in the city coat of arms -- 9. Strategies in Response to Time (2) -- Introduction -- The lightness of the bucket rider -- The Messiah who comes the day after his arrival -- Conclusion: Finding Freedom Beyond Subordination -- Law -- Life -- Power -- Language -- Time -- Finding freedom beyond subordination.

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