Abstract
In this paper, I consider two cinematic adaptations of Franz Kafka’s work – The Trial (dir. Orson Welles, 1962) and The Castle (dir. Michael Haneke, 1997) – to outline what I term a Kafkian hermeneutics. By considering the incomplete nature of the original works from which the films have drawn, I establish the ways in which the films provide a cinematic reinterpretation of the trials of Kafka’s protagonists using spectacle and specific structural effects and techniques to resolve the tension between an absence of authentic community and the presence of inauthentic impressions of community.
About the speaker
Matthew Cipa is teaching associate in film and television studies in the School of Communication and Arts and affiliate academic in the School of Languages and Cultures. He is the author of Is Harpo Free? and Other Questions of the Metaphysical Screen (SUNY Press, 2024)
About Studies in Culture Events
Through the scholarly analysis of many different kinds of cultural products, texts and phenomena, Studies in Culture brings together researchers who seek to understand how the world is understood differently by people coming from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Researchers in this cluster work on literature, film, music, theatre, the visual arts, intangible heritage, testimonies and historical narratives.
Research in Studies in Culture within the School centres around four broad sub-themes of Heritage, memory and trauma studies; Intellectual and cultural history; Literature; and Film and visual cultures.
To view more on the research and interests of the Studies in Culture cluster, please click here.