God, Emperor, and the "Disadvantages of Such Great Empires" : An Essay on Franz Kafka
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F19%3A10450079" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/19:10450079 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=Ff~nMgoFnP" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=Ff~nMgoFnP</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/rel.2019.0017" target="_blank" >10.1353/rel.2019.0017</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
God, Emperor, and the "Disadvantages of Such Great Empires" : An Essay on Franz Kafka
Original language description
This essay re-examines Kafka's reactions to the theme of the death of God. While focusing primarily on The Great Wall of China, it also compares this story to several other texts by Kafka, The Castle in particular. Moreover, it takes into account earlier commentaries, chiefly by Robert Alter, Wiebrecht Ries, Ritchie Robertson, and Hans Dieter Zimmermann. When it comes to Kafka's relation to Nietzsche, the imagery used by Kafka is sometimes conspicuously Nietzschean. However, Kafka's texts were influenced by other sources as well, for example by Kierkegaard. Moreover, they are marked by profound indeterminacy. They are, therefore, open both to religious and to non-religious readings; and they do not deny the existence of God, they merely cast doubt upon it. More specifically, the article argues that Kafka demonstrates that God, though possibly existent, does not control the life of human communities; and that religious traditions may prevent the reception of divine revelations. Kafka's skepticism, nonetheless, permits that religiousness might belong to the proper mode of existence. The concluding section explains, in reaction to Adorno, in what sense Kafka should elicit humility. As the article establishes by comparing his texts with the classic Czech author Němcová, the supreme authority expresses itself in Kafka only indistinctly. One cannot decide whether its ostensible manifestations are truly divine or merely "dreamed up". Everyone thus ought to be aware that no answer to the unknown is sufficiently justified.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>SC</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the SCOPUS database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2019
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Religion & Literature
ISSN
0888-3769
e-ISSN
2328-6911
Volume of the periodical
51
Issue of the periodical within the volume
1
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
23
Pages from-to
69-91
UT code for WoS article
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EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85121325190