Illustrationen zu Franz Kafka, a visual art exhibition curated by Sebastian Schmidt, at Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, Germany, from 12 October 2024–12 January 2025

(1966). Asceticism and Cannibalism: Notes on an Unpublished Kafka Text. Oxford German Studies: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 102-113.

Nur der Hunger kann das ganz und gar Eigentumliche sein; denn mit jeder Speise wird zugleich das Gesetz der anderen, werden die Spielregeln der im Verbot gesetzten Kulinarik ubernommen.1 -Neumann, Literatur 189. The characters in some of Kafka's most extraordinary short fiction, and the figure of himself in his letters,2 exhibit a complex relationship to food. For them, the act of eating is invested with meaning and often with power. Food can be the medium through which the authority of the father is exercised (Brief an den Vater), it can represent a philosophical conundrum (Forschungen eines Hundes) or the unattainable object of a transformed appetite (Die VerwandlungJ. Eating-or fasting-can be a marker of difference (Ein Hungerkunstler), a signifier of social isolation (Die Verwandlung, Der Bau) or the ultimate means of self-assertion (Der Bau). The significance of food and eating in has been interpreted as a response to the Enlightenment paradigm and the 19th-century Diatetik,3 and gender critiques have recently attained their rightful prominence in scholarship.4 Yet so far the intersection of the two approaches has not been explored. This article will show that Kafka's approach to food in his short fiction and letters contains a strong critique of the gender hegemony of his day. It will be argued here that a voracious appetite and the consumption of meat signify masculine privilege in the fiction and letters, and that therefore fasting and vegetarianism represent a rejection of masculinity in those terms. Adopting a marginalized, feminine status, Kafka's male figures employ an oppositional eating practice which challenges hegemonic masculinity. The focus of this article is the novella Die Verwandlung (1915), the short stories Ein Hungerkunstler'' (1924), Der Bau (1931), Forschungen eines Hundes (1931), and some letters, in particular the Brief an den Vater (1935, written in 1919).5 will be portrayed here neither as a nor as a proponent of vegetarianism or animal rights. Instead, this reading invokes Kafka's acknowledged status as a critic of hegemony and a literary expert on power.6 Only relatively recently have scholars begun to argue that Kafka's critique of power extends to a critique of hegemonic masculinity. In so doing, critics are reluctant to claim as a feminist author, whilst acknowledging that Kafka portrays relations between the sexes as power relations.7 This article will build on existing insights into Kafka's critique of masculine power and demonstrate the central role that food and eating (or fasting) play in this critique. Indeed, food is inscribed with gendered power relations and eating (or fasting) is at times a tool for the deployment of gendered power. At times, however, it can become a strategy by which to challenge or undermine that power. Any discussion of the meanings attributed to food and eating in Kafka's work should acknowledge the privileged position of the fast in Kafka's fiction. When eating or fasting are thematized in Kafka's fiction and letters, their subjection to social protocol and investment with cultural meaning are foregrounded. To eat is, for Kafka's figures, to consume social-and therefore gendered-norms. This point can best be made by considering the consequences for male characters of the refusal to eat, i.e., their rejection of the values ingested in eating behavior. Numerous critics have seen in the story Ein Hungerkunstler the prime example of fasting as social isolation.8 In this story, the eponymous protagonist astounds spectators with his prolonged periods of abstinence. However, when the public loses interest in his art, he continues to fast, becoming the only spectator of his enormous achievement, an overlooked sideshow act. Maud Ellmann notes that much of the fasting in Kafka's stories takes place in situations of confinement: in the hunger artist's cage, in Gregor Samsa's room in Die Verwandlung, in the creature's burrow in Der Bau, and in the self-imposed exile of the investigating dog of Forschungen eines Hundes (93). …

Reviewed by: Kafka im Comic by Christopher Hohlbaum Rosie MacLeod Christopher Hohlbaum, Kafka im Comic. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2015. 450pp. Christopher Hohlbaum’s doctoral thesis defends the comic-ized forms of Franz Kafk a’s Die Verwandlung, claiming these are not secondary but self-sealed primary texts and deserving of mature academic attention. The visual and textual in Kafka, Hohlbaum claims, cannot be separated, and moreover the resultant comic is a primary text to its author but only a secondary text in relation to the Kafka original. Hohlbaum identifies three specific types of Kafka comic translations: faithful visualisations of Die Verwandlung, those that incorporate his text indirectly, and carnivalesque sequences of Kafk aesque panels. The seminal example of the first category, Hohlbaum concludes, is the 1993 English-language Crumb-Mairowitz comic Kafka for Beginners, whose status as a point of reference to subsequent comic adaptations derived simply from its popularity. Hohlbaum opens his thesis with the letter Kafka sent to his editor to protest Ottomar Starke’s original cover illustration, which depicted the Käfer: Kafka did not wish Gregor Samsa’s new form be disambiguated on any grounds. He was by no means opposed to the inclusion of illustrations and suggested pictures of the Samsa household outside Gregor’s door or at the threshold to an eerie-looking room. Naming Samsa’s newly acquired form at the outset of his dissertation immediately equips Hohlbaum’s reader with an icon for Die Verwandlung and strengthens their appreciation for his arguments defending the novella’s visualization. This is key to Hohlbaum’s argument, since the more conservative scholars who oppose visualizations of Kafk a invariably do so on the grounds of his wish not to show the beetle. Even those who are distinctly disinterested in depictions of Kafk a, such as the critic Will Self, acknowledge his visual aspects. Self, on being contacted for this review, acknowledges that “Kafka was attuned to the melding of a new subjectivity out of mediatisation” and as such the Samsas’ house “is best conceived of as a camera.” There is no denying that Kafka’s work emulates the style of silent films, contemporaneous to the writing of the work and evoked in most comic adaptations by black-and-white illustrations. Already we see the blurring of intermedial borders, barriers Hohlbaum calls to be seriously reassessed. Kafka im Comic is primarily an extensive examination of the borders between media or rather of pushing and ultimately eliminating them. His argument for the increasingly blurred intermedial borders is based on Flusser’s [End Page 134] meaning spectrum, in which a concept transfers from author thought to page to reader thought wherein it is finally visualized, thus blurring the line between the artist and reader’s interpretive function. A picture merges reader with artist and artist with writer: It is read in the same way as the Kafka text from which it cannot be divorced, and it externalizes the reader’s mental picture of the Kafka they absorb from the page. The comic book picture physicalizes the reader’s interpretation of the word on the page and simultaneously the final link in the labyrinthine chain of Kafka interpretations, itself a physical externalization and documentation of the meaning spectrum on which Hohlbaum’s argument relies. Hohlbaum refers to Hans Fronius’ 1931 illustration of Die Verwandlung’s renowned opening clause. As Hohlbaum rightly points out, this came from a distinct sense of readiness to portray the beetle. Surprisingly, Hohlbaum negates the significant fact that this sketch also shows Samsa despairing on the bed, thus incorporating the lone figure in Starke’s 1915 illustration, “Verzweiflung!,” the novel’s eventual first frontispiece. This renders the Fronius sketch not only labyrinthine and shaped by its predecessor but also a tangible node to which Kafka’s original text, Starke’s illustration, and the more modern explicit approach are brought. The Fronius sketch physicalizes the intertextual labyrinth of Kafka adaptations. Hohlbaum in addition overlooks the fact that Fronius’ despairing figure has the form of a stick insect, which emulates both Gregor and the vegetarian Kafka. Hohlbaum’s argument disempowers the intermedial boundaries that communicate a message and simultaneously strengthens insoluble intertextual tensions, simply because...

This study discusses the meaning contained in the logo of the Province of Gorontalo in semiotic analysis. Logo is the identity of an institution that represents the history and culture of the institution while semiotics is the science of reading signs both verbally and visually, visual forms make the vision and mission as well as identity reflected in a logo. Just like the regional logo of Gorontalo Province which has various meanings of signs and symbols that reflect the area, for example, the Padi and cotton symbols are inspired by the city government logo which means depicting prosperity and others. There is also an oval pattern in the logo taken from the eggs of the Maleo bird, which is endemic to Gorontalo. There is the fort of Otana and pictures of books taken from our philosophy "adat based on sara', sara' based on the book of Allah. The purpose of the study was to describe and analyze what the meaning of the symbols in the logo of the Gorontalo Province were. The research used semiotic analysis of Charles Sanders Peirce. Semiotics departed from three main elements, which Peirce called the triangle theory of meaning, namely: signs, objects, and interpretants. The meaning of the logo can be studied scientifically with semiotic theory. In Peirce's study, symbols are divided into 3 categories: icons, indexes, and symbols. To analyze the meaning of symbols, Peirce uses 3 semiotic terms: representamen which is a symbol, semiotic object which is a real object of symbol reference, and interpretant which states the relationship between representamen and semiotic objects. Benefits of this research To add scientific insight in the field of linguistics, especially to the use of semiotic theory and to find out creative strategies in promotional activities of a government institution so that they can build a brand in the eyes of the public. The results of this study determine the meaning of the signs on the regional symbols of Gorontalo province. The output of this research is a scientific paper published in an accredited national journal.This study discusses the meaning contained in the logo of the Province of Gorontalo in semiotic analysis. Logo is the identity of an institution that represents the history and culture of the institution while semiotics is the science of reading signs both verbally and visually, visual forms make the vision and mission as well as identity reflected in a logo. Just like the regional logo of Gorontalo Province which has various meanings of signs and symbols that reflect the area, for example, the Padi and cotton symbols are inspired by the city government logo which means depicting prosperity and others. There is also an oval pattern in the logo taken from the eggs of the Maleo bird, which is endemic to Gorontalo. There is the fort of Otana and pictures of books taken from our philosophy "adat based on sara', sara' based on the book of Allah. The purpose of the study was to describe and analyze what the meaning of the symbols in the logo of the Gorontalo Province were. The research used semiotic analysis of Charles Sanders Peirce. Semiotics departed from three main elements, which Peirce called the triangle theory of meaning, namely: signs, objects, and interpretants. The meaning of the logo can be studied scientifically with semiotic theory. In Peirce's study, symbols are divided into 3 categories: icons, indexes, and symbols. To analyze the meaning of symbols, Peirce uses 3 semiotic terms: representamen which is a symbol, semiotic object which is a real object of symbol reference, and interpretant which states the relationship between representamen and semiotic objects. Benefits of this research To add scientific insight in the field of linguistics, especially to the use of semiotic theory and to find out creative strategies in promotional activities of a government institution so that they can build a brand in the eyes of the public. The results of this study determine the meaning of the signs on the regional symbols of Gorontalo province. The output of this research is a scientific paper published in an accredited national journal.

In the very first sentence of Die Verwandlung, Kafka, with characteristic conciseness, denotes the creature into which Gregor Samsa has changed: Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Traiumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem Ungeziefer verwandelt. Yet it is surprising that many American and English interpreters and critics, supposedly starting from Kafka's two quite unambiguous, though highly connotative German words, ungeheueren Ungeziefer, and not necessarily insensitive to the fineness of Kafka's symbolism in general, should offer a variety of vitiating interpretations precisely in the case of this pregnant and critical symbol. The transformed Gregor Samsa is regularly denoted in English as insect' or vermin.2 As to the former, it is relevant to note that German has a perfectly good word for insect; it is Insekt, and significantly, Kafka has not used it in Die Verwandlung.' Insekt is too cold a word, too scientific, and incapable of bearing the negative, hence unpleasant connotation inherent in Ungeziefer. We should hardly expect Kafka, master of the literary symbol, to deprive himself of the basic symbolic content of his story by the use of a sterile symbol. English insect likewise lacks the emotional impact, the dis-

Aesthetics play a vital role in the celebration of Akwantukese festival. In the course of the festival celebration, several visual art forms are seen and these art forms give aesthetic value to observers. The aesthetic value associated to the visual art forms in the festival can aid people acquire knowledge and satisfaction. Yet, very few people actively participate in the celebration and do a critical observation of these visual art forms. The study is therefore aimed at focusing the aesthetic values of the visual art forms in the Akwantukese festival celebration. The objective(s) of the study are: (i)to identify the visual art forms embedded in the festival celebration. (ii)to describe the visual art forms and bring out their aesthetic values. Phenomenology and descriptive methods under qualitative research approach was employed in this study. The purposive sampling technique was used to select 30 respondents for the research and the main research instruments used for data collection were interviews and observations. The results indicate that there are a lot of visual art forms seen in Akwantukese festival celebration that have aesthetic values and can be appreciated by all and sundry. The research concludes that some of the art forms used during the festival celebration have philosophical and symbolical meanings that express emotions such as happiness, dreadfulness, sadness and others. It is therefore recommended that the chiefs and the people of New Juaben Traditional area should try as much as possible to fully participate in the festival celebration in order to see the various visual art forms and appreciate their aesthetic values. Again the festival should be made attractive to the international communities in order to promote tourism. Keywords: Aesthetic values, art forms, performing art, Akwantukese festival, visual art, celebration DOI: 10.7176/ADS/80-04 Publication date: January 31st 2020

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies on humans have identified a region in the left middle fusiform gyrus consistently activated by written words. This region is called the visual word form area (VWFA). Recently, a hypothesis, called the interactive account, is proposed that to effectively analyze the bottom-up visual properties of words, the VWFA receives predictive feedback from higher-order regions engaged in processing sounds, meanings, or actions associated with words. Further, this top-down influence on the VWFA is independent of stimulus formats. To test this hypothesis, we used fMRI to examine whether a symbolic nonword object (e.g., the Eiffel Tower) intended to represent something other than itself (i.e., Paris) could activate the VWFA. We found that scenes associated with symbolic meanings elicited a higher VWFA response than those not associated with symbolic meanings, and such top-down modulation on the VWFA can be established through short-term associative learning, even across modalities. In addition, the magnitude of the symbolic effect observed in the VWFA was positively correlated with the subjective experience on the strength of symbol-referent association across individuals. Therefore, the VWFA is likely a neural substrate for the interaction of the top-down processing of symbolic meanings with the analysis of bottom-up visual properties of sensory inputs, making the VWFA the location where the symbolic meaning of both words and nonword objects is represented.

With the development of digital media, people's perceptions of the image, watch, cognitive and analysis mode has changed. The introduction of digital media technology, make visual language more rich, innovative visual aesthetic form, which has a far-reaching influence on the visual subject. Articles on digital media and visual art in the context of theory analysis, put forward opinions for the development of digital media. This article by the context of digital media by way of information, which is based on analyzing the change of from visual forms, visual thinking, visual media, visual culture and other aspects of the further research of visual art innovation. Of the new media leads to changes in the form of traditional media to make in-depth analysis, explore the augmented reality technology applied in the visual arts innovation, open up a new perspective of theoretical research of visual art innovation.

Abstract: The present study explores the many meanings of symbols in modernity, as a fundamental concept in the history of religions, as an aesthetic category in art history, and as a method of representation and assignment of meaning in psychological theories. Ironically, Eliade was part of a cohort of academics who recaptured the original potency of the symbol (at the theoretical level), yet lived during its most significant deterioration (in the realm of social practices). Modernity is a time characterized by radical secularization of institutions, language, and human interactions. Simultaneously, it signified the independence of the empirical as opposed to the intelligible. Considering the religious importance of the symbol, as envisaged by Eliade, as a gateway to an ultimate reality (the sacred), inaccessible to all other forms of knowledge, what remains of its original power in the context of secular modernity? Does the work of art exhibit any alterations in its symbolic function? While no longer perceived as religious in the conventional sense, a significant faction of modernity endeavored to maintain a certain spiritual ambiance, serving as a gateway to the transcendent.

Although recent years have seen a growing philosophical interest in smell, aesthetic research on it still covers a relatively small domain, confinedto a niche. The present issue deals with smell as a very serious philosophical issue, in some cases even as a vector of a whole philosophical project.The papers here collected show how olfaction, odors, fragrances and, more in general, the aerial dimension of being and knowing cover a huge range of problems that even exceeds the aesthetic domain in its conventional sense. This is why readers will not find papers written exclusively by professional philosophers, but also by curators, artists, perfumers and semiologists.The relationship between smell, cognition and aesthetic experience, the use of odors in the arts and their symbolic meanings, and the socio-ontological and socio-aesthetic engagement through the ethical and political implications of smell are some of the topics the essays tackle through different approaches and perspectives.

The local community in Mandarangan Village in Cirebon is located in the Kasepuhan palace area, which is often known as a cultural heritage of its ancestors, and so that many master craftsmen including craftsmen of Panji mask are born. The art of Panji mask craft has some interesting symbols to study. The art of Indonesian Panji Cirebon masks in the village of Slangit has many varieties of meanings in the form of visualization, which brings various interpretations to mask art lovers. This study aims to determine the symbolic meaning contained in the Cirebon style Panji mask using the semiotic approach of Charles Sander Pierce. The research shows that (1) the Cirebon style banner mask which is composed of visual symbols, namely tanpa jamang, nanggal sepisan eyebrows, menjangan ranggah eyebrows, leyepan eyes, kedhelen eyes, walimiring nose, prengesan mouth, white color all of these symbols are stylized from the shape of objects natural. (2) The structure of the visual symbolism of the Cirebon style Panji Mask which contains character values consisting of the shape of the eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth and color. All symbolic structures are stylized forms of natural objects with character values of sacred, loyal, obedient, honest, innocent, simple, smooth, gentle, dashing, smart, wise, cheerful, and smiling or friendly.

Functional specificity of the visual word form area: General activation for words and symbols but specific network activation for words

Tourism firms using visual social media marketing are struggling with its implementation, specifically in formulating engagement-based visual message strategies. Yet, creating such appealing posts can lead to positive brand and financial outcomes. Humour has been identified as a potent tool for social media communication, given its capability to develop social interactions. Yet, how humour works on social media is not well understood – specifically its visual form. Treating humour as a symbolic resource, this study adopted a compound content analysis-semiotic analysis to identify visual content and its symbolic meaning embedded in destination marketing organization (DMO)’s social media posts. 200 Sina Weibo posts containing humour images initiated by 5 Chinese provincial DMOs were collected. The results show 6 types of humour content and6 types of symbolic meaning – none of which are product-related. This study advances the tourism literature and humour theory, and offers tourism firms a holistic view of how to fully leverage social media-based visual humour to achieve consumer reach and engagement.

Form represents the external aspect, the appearance under which any thing or object in the surrounding world is presented. In the fine arts, form is the result of the creative process and includes the idea or concept that underlies the masterpiece. Depending on the configurations of the form, it acts directly on the perception, accessing the associative - intuitive levels of memory through special psychic mechanisms. Any form corresponds to a certain semantic and emotional meaning. The language of visual forms is a universal, symbolic, figurative or abstract language, multiple and very diverse in terms of treatment and plastic expression. The form through its pronounced evaluative-associative properties and aspects represents a strong means of communication, often not consciously needed. Graphic and pictorial forms have very diverse associations and symbolic meanings, which are found in universal human thought and constitute the visual grammar of plastic language, used by artists, painters, designers, etc. Visual symbols have their own language, being made up of associations of significant elements of form. The different characteristics of the forms convey different emotions and meanings. These visual forms instantly transmit complex messages by triggering deep psychic reactions. In the process of establishing meaning, any form is analyzed not only by its exterior, but also by its inner essence (internal structure). As a result, through its evaluative-associative aspects, they represent a powerful means of communication, often not consciously needed.

This study investigates the relationships between visual form attributes (height, shape, and curvature) and product perception, particularly exploring the dynamic interplay between formal aesthetics and product semantics. The challenge of effectively incorporating formal aesthetic characteristics into the design process is addressed by adopting Gestalt theory as a guiding framework. Drawing on the Gestalt principle of Prägnanz, this research investigates the role of primary visual attributes of form on perceived Complexity, Symmetry, Harmony, and Regularity of kettle images. A central aspect of this investigation is the recognition of a product's form, which possesses the potential to influence the symbolism associated with the product's personality traits attributed by users. To this end, the study aims to acquire deeper insights into the perception of familiarity, prototypicality, beauty, and attractiveness to comprehensively analyze the overall product perception while unravelling the underlying significance of emotional responses through the product's personality. The goal of this study is to deconstruct the form attributes exhibited by eight kettles of various designs. By doing so, we seek to understand how these form attributes synergistically contribute to creating a unified perceptual whole to convey a specific character or identity. The findings offer insights into the influence of form on a product's aesthetic perception and perceived personality and how form contributes to a product's symbolic meaning. By grasping the intricacies of product perception, designers can create products that cater to the diverse needs of different user groups, ultimately leading to increased market acceptance and commercial success.