Kafka, Genealogy, and the Spiritualization of Politics

Abstract

The question of ideals, and their role in political and ethical life, informs this essay on Kafka. I am looking to develop a genealogical idealism, i.e., an idealism alert to a Nietzschean or "genealogical" critique, but also alert to the positive ethical potential of a set of elusive desiderata. I read Kafka as offering the kind of reflective idealism I seek. After a brief discussion of the "genealogical" approach to ideals, I turn to Kafka's "The Great Wall of China" and In the Penal Colony to show how their genealogical effects exist alongside counteracting and recuperative forces also within the narratives. I conclude with a discussion of the political potential of a Kafkaesque idealism.

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