Strangers on a Tram: Space, Time, Power, and Performance in Franz Kafka's ‘Der Fahrgast’ and Ruth Klüger's weiter leben

Abstract

This article compares two encounters on trams: a scene from Ruth Klüger's weiter leben and Franz Kafka's ‘Der Fahrgast'. It suggests that narrative spaces are performative and narrative time complicates performances of identity. Both scenes construct apparent dichotomies between male and female, old and young, subject and object, binaries that are made ambiguous by the topography of theatricalization and cinema. The article introduces the concepts of 'spatial' and ‘temporal’ concertinas, whereby shifts in perspective alter power dynamics. The analysis suggests that the depiction of bodies, space, and time offers insight into aspects of identity and subjectivity that otherwise remain hidden.