Kafka's 'Before the Law': The participation of the subject in its subjectification. Issue 12 (December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Huber, Christian
• Is Part Of: Organization studies. Volume 40:Issue 12(2019)
• Page Start: 1823
• Page End: 1840
• Publication Date: 2019-12
• Subjects: Kafka -- literature -- performance evaluation -- reflexivity -- subjectification; Organizational sociology -- Periodicals; Organizational behavior -- Periodicals; Organization -- Periodicals; 302.35
• DOI: 10.1177/0170840619874460
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0170-8406

Abstract

This paper presents a close encounter between the literary works of Franz Kafka and a core topic in organizational theories of power, namely the participation of subjects in their own subjectification. In discussing 'In the Cathedral', the penultimate chapter of The Trial by Franz Kafka, the paper develops three central aspects of Kafka's text: reflexivity as a form of entanglement with power, self-slander complementing formal involvement, and humour as a form of freedom. These aspects are mirrored against the example of performance evaluation to complement and enrich the theoretical debate about subjectification more generally. The paper and its contributions serve as a corrective to approaches that overemphasize either the possibilities of resistance, for example through reflexivity, or the impotence of the subject in the face of power.