Kafka und das Problem der Endlichkeit

In his study, Dominik Zechner addresses a largely overlooked central theme of Kafka's literature: the question of finitude. Finitude is not treated here as just another topic, but as the inherent problem of Kafka's writing, particularly in relation to the production and functioning of meaning and its readability. While Kafka's texts revolve around inescapability, enigma, and the finitude of existence, their language resists a finite interpretation—it remains perpetually open to reading and continually generates new possibilities for interpretation and ways of continuing the discourse, especially where death and closure should be addressed. In 15 interconnected sections, the Germanist and philosopher Zechner elucidates how Kafka's language establishes itself in the balance between "death and the scratched curve before it," thereby creating constant new threshold spaces and intermediary zones. For the reading of the texts, this means that the alternatives discussed within them structurally refuse a decision in favor of a single pole, and it is precisely in this refusal that their often-acknowledged depth can be found. Zechner illustrates this through meticulous readings (such as of the texts The Judgment, The Trial, The Castle, among others), demonstrating how reductive and misleading singular interpretations must be—often leading to the revision of prominent readings. In a playful manner, Zechner not only succeeds in showcasing the functioning of Kafka's texts but also sheds light on the philosophical problem areas they engage with. With a flair for expression and wit, this essay becomes a surprisingly light-hearted exploration of the relationship between language and finitude, death and meaning: "Linguistically framed, death is always already a representation of itself—and thus not death at all, but the survival of its representation.".