Kafka's ‘Josefine die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse’

The first part of this article is a textual analysis of cultural pleasure as depicted in Kafka's ‘Josefine die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse’. There are two levels to this pleasure: the first, based on mutual misunderstanding, is that Josefine's performance mirrors the community's own vulnerability, which paradoxically enriches its sense of belonging, and this in turn confirms its ability to protect her to the extent that she can perform for their benefit. The second level is of a psychoanalytical nature, based upon the recurrence of the word ‘Verlangen’ in the text, denoting a stronger, potentially destructive jouissance both enabled and deflected by the mutual misunderstanding previously described. The second part of the article consists of a more formal textual analysis, bringing out the specific indeterminacy of the text and arguing that this throws light upon Kafka's sense of the possible reception of his writing. Drawing upon Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer, and other recent interpretations of Kafka, the third part of the article then asks what the foregoing analysis can suggest about the actual reception of Kafka and about the history of modernist cultural pleasure more broadly. Well, we know where we’re going, but we don't know where we’ve been.   Talking Heads, ‘Road to Nowhere’