Josef K.
A bank official who tries to treat the absurd as a case he can manage.
Modernism · Novel · 1925
The Trial
Franz Kafka
Josef K. is arrested without being told why. Courts occupy attics; procedure replaces accusation. Guilt is a climate.
Parable / modernist novel
Characters
The priest
Teller of the parable before the law, which explains nothing and everything.
Themes
Unreachable law
Authority is everywhere and never quite present.
Guilt without charge
Modernity as a feeling of having already failed.
Motifs
Power hidden in the ordinary building’s unused rooms.
Access promised, delayed, and finally lethal.