Josef K.'s (A + x) Problem: Kafka on the Moment of Awakening1

Abstract

This article argues that moments of awakening in Die Verwandlung and Der Proceß provide spatial and temporal indices in which Kafka's protagonists attempt to re‐orient themselves in a world where previous empirical grounding has been undermined. In particular, I explore a deleted passage from the manuscript of Der Proceß, in which Josef K. explains his lack of surprise at his arrest by giving a short lecture on the psychology of awakening. K. relates how awakening, the “riskiest moment of the day,” is a decisive epistemological event, requiring a great amount of cognitive composure to keep the world from slipping into incoherence. These comments also offer a unique instance of Kafka's engagement with a contemporary work of psychological theory. They resemble a passage from Max Brod and Felix Weltsch's 1913 book on perception, Anschauung und Begriff, in which the authors explain the difficulty of perceptual orientation upon awakening through their concept of the “memory‐image,” expressed in the formula (A + x). K. intimates that this is one way he might be able to understand his arrest: by locating it, at the moment of waking up, as a problem of (A + x).