{"title":"在剧院的门口:卡夫卡的俄克拉何马剧院和自然戏剧运动","authors":"Marit Grøtta","doi":"10.1215/0094033X-8809371","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n The Nature theater of Oklahama in Der Verschollene is one of Kafka’s most enigmatic inventions, widely known through Walter Benjamin’s and Giorgio Agamben’s reading of it as a theater of gestures. This article explores the intertextual archive of Kafka’s novel, bringing into play an entry hitherto overlooked: the nature theater movement in the early twentieth century, promoted by the conservative Heimatkunstbewegung. Discussing the historical nature theater, on the one hand, and Benjamin’s and Agamben’s theater of gestures, on the other, the article examines the conceptions of life that come into play in the novel (life as career, life as theater, life as gesture) and considers the fate of the protagonist in this light. Seeing the question of inclusion/exclusion as key to Kafka’s novel, the article argues that it exposes the thin line between utopia and dystopia and allows us to reflect on the dangers as well as the possibilities of modernity.","PeriodicalId":46595,"journal":{"name":"NEW GERMAN CRITIQUE","volume":"48 1","pages":"103-123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"At the Door of the Theater: Kafka’s Oklahama Theater and the Nature Theater Movement\",\"authors\":\"Marit Grøtta\",\"doi\":\"10.1215/0094033X-8809371\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"\\n The Nature theater of Oklahama in Der Verschollene is one of Kafka’s most enigmatic inventions, widely known through Walter Benjamin’s and Giorgio Agamben’s reading of it as a theater of gestures. This article explores the intertextual archive of Kafka’s novel, bringing into play an entry hitherto overlooked: the nature theater movement in the early twentieth century, promoted by the conservative Heimatkunstbewegung. Discussing the historical nature theater, on the one hand, and Benjamin’s and Agamben’s theater of gestures, on the other, the article examines the conceptions of life that come into play in the novel (life as career, life as theater, life as gesture) and considers the fate of the protagonist in this light. Seeing the question of inclusion/exclusion as key to Kafka’s novel, the article argues that it exposes the thin line between utopia and dystopia and allows us to reflect on the dangers as well as the possibilities of modernity.\",\"PeriodicalId\":46595,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"NEW GERMAN CRITIQUE\",\"volume\":\"48 1\",\"pages\":\"103-123\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.4000,\"publicationDate\":\"2021-02-01\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"NEW GERMAN CRITIQUE\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1215/0094033X-8809371\",\"RegionNum\":3,\"RegionCategory\":\"文学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"0\",\"JCRName\":\"LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"NEW GERMAN CRITIQUE","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1215/0094033X-8809371","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
At the Door of the Theater: Kafka’s Oklahama Theater and the Nature Theater Movement
The Nature theater of Oklahama in Der Verschollene is one of Kafka’s most enigmatic inventions, widely known through Walter Benjamin’s and Giorgio Agamben’s reading of it as a theater of gestures. This article explores the intertextual archive of Kafka’s novel, bringing into play an entry hitherto overlooked: the nature theater movement in the early twentieth century, promoted by the conservative Heimatkunstbewegung. Discussing the historical nature theater, on the one hand, and Benjamin’s and Agamben’s theater of gestures, on the other, the article examines the conceptions of life that come into play in the novel (life as career, life as theater, life as gesture) and considers the fate of the protagonist in this light. Seeing the question of inclusion/exclusion as key to Kafka’s novel, the article argues that it exposes the thin line between utopia and dystopia and allows us to reflect on the dangers as well as the possibilities of modernity.
期刊介绍:
Widely considered the top journal in its field, New German Critique is an interdisciplinary journal that focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first-century German studies and publishes on a wide array of subjects, including literature, film, and media; literary theory and cultural studies; Holocaust studies; art and architecture; political and social theory; and philosophy. Established in the early 1970s, the journal has played a significant role in introducing U.S. readers to Frankfurt School thinkers and remains an important forum for debate in the humanities.