Bodies as Signs: Somacentric Signification and the Foundation of Meaning in Franz Kafka’s “Ein Hungerkünstler” and “In der Strafkolonie”

Abstract

This article offers a comparative reading of “Ein Hungerkünstler” and “In der Strafkolonie,” combining the topic of incomprehension and miscommunication with the motif of the body. It analyzes how meaning and signification are conceptualized within the two stories, how problems of misunderstanding are framed and possible solutions explored. In an attempt to overcome the limitations of speaking and writing, each story proposes a form of somacentric signification: the hunger artist turns his whole body into a sign, and the torture apparatus in the penal colony inscribes its sentence directly onto the delinquent’s skin. Using Charles Sanders Peirce’s triadic concept of the sign, Friedrich Nietzsche’s principle of the conventional nature of meaning, and Jacques Derrida’s critique of Western metaphysics, I analyze mechanisms and limitations of somacentric signification. Exploring the reasons for its ultimate failure leads me to consider the social foundation of meaning as depicted within the two stories, addressing the question under which circumstances understanding and communication are possible in the works of Franz Kafka.