Writing in the Time of Photo-, Phono-, and Cinematography. On Images in Franz Kafka’s Novel The Trial

Abstract

The new edition of Kafka’s Drawings adds new material to the well-known fact that, in addition to his interests in both art history and the art of his own time, Kafka was a highly original draughtsman himself. Yet, it also shows that he stopped practicing these skills well before time of what he called his breakthrough to “the only way writing could be done.” Nonetheless, the pictorial arts kept playing a decisive role not only in his writings, but also for his writing. In his novel The Trial, caricatures, paintings, photographs, and even cinematographic techniques interrupt and divert the written word revealing hidden layers of the story. While still firmly rooted in the tradition of alphabetic writing, his work registers—like a seismograph—the effects of new media of data storage and transmission.