Rachel Baker

English and German (2^nd Year)

Poster Session: ‘Is it important to consider the historical context in a reading of Kafka’s In Der Strafkolonie?’

As part of my course I had to deliver a presentation on the importance of historical context when reading Kafka’s In der Strafkolonie.

As there are already many existing readings and interpretations of Kafka, I decided to do a historical reading and then choose another alternative reading which particularly interested me, and discuss their respective strengths and relevance.

As we were also studying Nietzsche, I thought it would be interesting to do a reading from a Nietzschean/ existentialist viewpoint. I came to the conclusion that recognising the historical context (in this case, colonialism) is very important, but that restricting oneself to that viewpoint can be a little simplistic: as a result of my research I believe that for Kafka, the historical context was more of a backdrop for the exploration of more complex ideas.

I will talk about how I went about finding relevant articles: I focused on one article to support each viewpoint, but also found other useful quotations from critics and demonstrative quotations from the primary text. I would also talk about how I went about constructing my argument and presenting my research to my seminar group.

Rachel Baker’s Poster