Power and Performativity: 'Doing Things With Words' in Kafka's Proceß.

This essay investigates the role of language as an agent of power in Der Proceß. I explore Josef K.'s arrest in terms of a catastrophic loss of linguistic prowess, after which the protagonist's ability to control situations or events through spoken language appears severely compromised. By contrast, I argue that the utterances spoken on behalf of the law exercise a form of absolute power, conveyed in a mode of language in which the expression of meaning becomes entirely subordinated to its role in bringing about certain (social, legal) effects. Employing J. L. Austin's conception of performative speech, I argue that the impenetrable aspect of the novel's legal system derives from its tendency to employ language as a means of exerting power rather than signifying (or even obscuring) an underlying reality. Moreover, I explore the conventions that enable a particular utterance to exert immediate and discernible effects upon its social setting. In so doing, I hope to offer a means of historicizing Der Proceß more closely by uncovering the discourses and ideologies to which K. and other characters appeal when they attempt performative speech acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]