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<p>The texts that Franz Kafka sets in an imaginary China in a second phase&#xa0;– in the so-called »Konvolut 1920«&#xa0;– revolve around the question of the stability of domination and thus engages with a&#xa0;problem that Max Weber, around the same time, also explored in his reflections on the sociology of domination, specifically regarding China. Unlike the first phase in 1917, which dealt with the relationship between emperorship and wall-building (i.e., center and periphery), this phase focuses on the everyday mechanisms of the desire to obey, which, according to Max Weber, must underlie any enduring domination relationship. A close reading of the short text on »Truppenaushebungen« demonstrates that Kafka’s use of singulative, event-oriented narration (in narratological terms) is no longer sufficient to explain the static nature of domination relationship. Instead, Kafka creates something new here: a&#xa0;<i>sujetless</i> narrative in Lotman’s sense, one that functions entirely as iterative narration and dispenses with events altogether. The text depicts two gender-specific, recurring deviations from the standard process during troop conscriptions, illustrating the desire to obey through excess. Just as the laws in the parallel text <i>Zur Frage der Gesetze</i> are inaccessible, the commands in the text on troop conscription become invisible. At the same time, Kafka’s contribution to the sociology of domination makes it clear that the will to obey can only exist as an enigma.</p>

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年5月20日

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  • Michael Niehaus

摘要

The texts that Franz Kafka sets in an imaginary China in a second phase – in the so-called »Konvolut 1920« – revolve around the question of the stability of domination and thus engages with a problem that Max Weber, around the same time, also explored in his reflections on the sociology of domination, specifically regarding China. Unlike the first phase in 1917, which dealt with the relationship between emperorship and wall-building (i.e., center and periphery), this phase focuses on the everyday mechanisms of the desire to obey, which, according to Max Weber, must underlie any enduring domination relationship. A close reading of the short text on »Truppenaushebungen« demonstrates that Kafka’s use of singulative, event-oriented narration (in narratological terms) is no longer sufficient to explain the static nature of domination relationship. Instead, Kafka creates something new here: a sujetless narrative in Lotman’s sense, one that functions entirely as iterative narration and dispenses with events altogether. The text depicts two gender-specific, recurring deviations from the standard process during troop conscriptions, illustrating the desire to obey through excess. Just as the laws in the parallel text Zur Frage der Gesetze are inaccessible, the commands in the text on troop conscription become invisible. At the same time, Kafka’s contribution to the sociology of domination makes it clear that the will to obey can only exist as an enigma.