Kafka’s ‘Before the Law’: The participation of the subject in its subjectification

This paper presents a close encounter between the literary works of Franz Kafka and a core topic in organizational theories of power, namely the participation of subjects in their own subjectification. In discussing ‘In the Cathedral’, the penultimate chapter of The Trial by Franz Kafka, the paper d...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inOrganization studies Vol. 40; no. 12; pp. 1823 - 1840
Main Author Huber, Christian
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.12.2019
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Humor
Kafka, Franz (1883-1924)
Organization studies
Organization theory
Power
Reflexivity
Resistance
Kafka
performance evaluation
literature
reflexivity
subjectification
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:This paper presents a close encounter between the literary works of Franz Kafka and a core topic in organizational theories of power, namely the participation of subjects in their own subjectification. In discussing ‘In the Cathedral’, the penultimate chapter of The Trial by Franz Kafka, the paper develops three central aspects of Kafka’s text: reflexivity as a form of entanglement with power, self-slander complementing formal involvement, and humour as a form of freedom. These aspects are mirrored against the example of performance evaluation to complement and enrich the theoretical debate about subjectification more generally. The paper and its contributions serve as a corrective to approaches that overemphasize either the possibilities of resistance, for example through reflexivity, or the impotence of the subject in the face of power.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0170-8406
1741-3044
DOI:10.1177/0170840619874460