Introduction

Summary

Kafka'sAmerika: The Aesthetics and Politics of Incompletion

The following study of the relations between language and gesture, and the representation of gesture in writing and performance, begins with the premise that spoken utterance occurs within a non-verbal context of visible bodily signals, which often serve to complicate the utterance either by reinforcing the speech-act or displaying a conflicting intention. In Kafka's Amerika, when Uncle Jacob explains to the ship's crew why Karl Rossmann's parents turned him out, what he says is complicated by the gesture he performs:

‘For he was’, Uncle Jacob went on, rocking himself a little on the bamboo cane which was braced in front of him, a gesture that actually succeeded in deprecating any unnecessary solemnity which otherwise must have characterised his statement, ‘for he was seduced by a maidservant […] It is far from my wishes to offend my nephew by using the word “seduced”, but it is difficult to find another and equally suitable word.’

The lightness of tone in Jacob's gesture with the cane undermines the ‘unnecessary solemnity’ which is otherwise unavoidable in what he is socially permitted to express in speech. The bending cane suggests Karl's bending will before the maid's seduction; it draws attention to the cane's phallic aspect; and it reiterates the element of punishment, the proverbial caning, which greeted Karl's lapse. The gesture is a gentle comic flourish, arguing for sympathy with Karl's youthful indiscretion by emphasising an essentially unserious tone through which the story is then related and judgement passed.