Abstract
Kafka's last novel, Das Schloss, borrows structural and thematic elements from the medieval grail quest, especially the first extant grail narrative, Chrétien's incomplete Perceval. In Kafka, however, the symbolic object worthy of the quester's efforts (the grail) is absent. The land surveyor's refusal to be motivated by any object other than “getting to the Castle” is his successful resistance to the oppressive force of authority in the village. Kafka's Das Schloss is a deliberately “stalled” or “failed” version of Perceval, which offers its reader a glimpse of what Benjamin describes as a vision of redemption “on the inner linings” of nothing.
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