An Interpretation Of Classical Political System In Kafka’s Das Schloβ

Franz Kafka is one of the most important writers of the twentieth century,and Das Schloβ is Kafka’s most important novel.The research on Kafka’s Das Schloβabout politics and classical works is weak,wherefore,this paper’s thesis is based on the ancient Greek elements and political writing in Kafka’s Das Schloβ to elucidate the author’s views.The purpose of this paper is to interpret the implied classical contents in Das Schloβ and their corresponding profound connotations,and to find combinations between the classical works and the political system in Das Schloβ.Still,this papar’s purpose is to find out the reason of Kafka’s creation.Finally,it discusses Kafka’s attitudes towards the classical spirits,as well as the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Czech authorities in the early twentieth century.This paper is divided into three parts.The first part mainly discusses the political system of the castle in Das Schloβ.At first,there are distinctive characteristics of the tyrant in both K.and the castle authorities.Secondly,there are similarities between Das Schloβ and Plato’s the Laws,both in the form of textual expression and the use of detailed images.Finally,Kafka creates a world with the classical political system through the use of large numbers of classical contents in the Law:the castle representes the personal dictatorship of the count Westwest ostensibly,but in fact,the local officials and subjects of the castle have finished the transgression to the count,and achieved a republican tyranny.The second part discusses the antithesis of the castle,that is,Kafka uses classical contents to suggest the characteristic of K.:the tyrant.K.implies the Oedipus Tyrant,and K’s arrogant soul order has the same model with the castle’s political mode.Second,the struggle of K.is actually under the leadership by the castle,that is,assistants,messengers and secretaries with the help has gradually made it become a reality.Third,the struggle of K.is to find K.’s own soul order.K.’s personal tyranny soul model and the castle’s political model of each other,are the different soul models in Plato’s Republic,which represent polis politics in "capital letter" and individual soul order in "lowercase" in Das Schloβ.The third part discusses the reason why Kafka creates the classical political system in Das Schloβ.First of all,the struggle of the tyrant in Das Schloβ implies Kafka’s struggling spirit,that is,the complex of the failure that joined the army for many times.Secondly,Kafka has a nostalgia,including grudge and regret to the Habsburg.Moreover,Kafka makes prototypes of Josef the Emperor and Ferdinand the Grand Duke as the Westwest count and K.in Das Schloβ,which to express dissatisfaction with the reality of politics.Finally,Kafka has more,not the modern spirit,but the classical spirit.At the same time,as a writer of Kafka,the classical spirit has its own views on the classical elements of the deformation and recreation.All of these reflect Kafka ’s own classicism.