- Title
- Islands of control: spatial and psychoanalytical constructs in Franz Kafka's fiction
- Creator
- Jozefiak, Sarah
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- The fictional stories of Czech author Franz Kafka are renowned throughout the world for capturing the sombre and anxious zeitgeist of the early twentieth century in Europe. Kafka’s fiction was produced in the years immediately before the First World War and against a backdrop of emerging modernity. This dissertation critically examines several recurring spatial constructs — involving interiors, furniture and possessions — in Franz Kafka’s short stories, The Trial (1925), and The Metamorphosis (1915). These spatial constructs are identified and interpreted using a combination of theories drawn from three areas: architecture, psychoanalysis and literature. The primary architectural theories which are employed for this purpose are Anthony Vidler’s theory of the architectural uncanny, and Emily Apter’s thematic history of cabinet typologies. The psychoanalytical theories are drawn largely from Sigmund Freud’s On the Uncanny (1919), and his concept of dream symbolism developed in On the Interpretation of Dreams (1900) and Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1915). Finally, literary theory, including the Russian formalist Viktor Shklovsky’s model of ‘enstrangement’, is used to develop the notions of langue and parole to assist in constructing the connection between Freud and architecture, which is a precursor to the analysis of spatial constructs in Kafka’s fiction. The dissertation is divided into three parts. The first develops the theoretical framework for the central argument, looking at the uncanny and how it occurs in literature, architecture and psychoanalysis, before developing a theoretical nexus between the three. The second part examines the spaces of Kafka’s life and dreams, including connections between the two. The third part examines spatial constructs in his fiction, focusing on The Trial and The Metamorphosis. Through this process, the dissertation uncovers a particular recurring spatial structure, called, for the purposes of the present research, an ‘island of control’. This structure is nested at multiple scales and functions as a type of fortification, providing moments of personal power for the main protagonist in Kafka’s fiction, which are inevitably breached. By understanding the role played by these ‘islands’ in Kafka’s fiction, a new insight is offered into how architecture is used to aid narrative and character development, and further our understanding of the uncanny in architectural theory.
- Subject
- Kafka; Freud; psychoanalysis; uncanny; space; Prague; interiors; fiction
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1389345
- Identifier
- uon:32878
- Rights
- Copyright 2018 Sarah Jozefiak
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 6 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 60 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |