Laurence A. Rickels
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816675951
- eISBN:
- 9781452947167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816675951.003.0008
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter examines Franz Kafka’s antimetaphorical conception of allusion. It argues that Kafka’s antimetaphorical conception of allusion harbors a “defective force” which signifies by undoing ...
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This chapter examines Franz Kafka’s antimetaphorical conception of allusion. It argues that Kafka’s antimetaphorical conception of allusion harbors a “defective force” which signifies by undoing “analogy as soon as it has posited it.”. Stanley Corngold concludes that allusion—the metamorphosis of metaphor—ultimately and always creates monsters. Kafka records in his diary two radically separate entries which nevertheless span the introjective and projective reach of Kafka’s anti-metaphorical rapport with writing. At one end, Kafka includes a report of premature burial: “Two children, alone at home, climbed into a large trunk, the lid shut tight, they couldn’t open it and suffocated.”Less
This chapter examines Franz Kafka’s antimetaphorical conception of allusion. It argues that Kafka’s antimetaphorical conception of allusion harbors a “defective force” which signifies by undoing “analogy as soon as it has posited it.”. Stanley Corngold concludes that allusion—the metamorphosis of metaphor—ultimately and always creates monsters. Kafka records in his diary two radically separate entries which nevertheless span the introjective and projective reach of Kafka’s anti-metaphorical rapport with writing. At one end, Kafka includes a report of premature burial: “Two children, alone at home, climbed into a large trunk, the lid shut tight, they couldn’t open it and suffocated.”
