Sadomasochism in Kafka’s Literature
Background
Literature explores numerous themes that reveal the author’s inner thoughts and perspectives about life. For example, Corngold’s “The Commentator’s Despair” sums up Franz Kafka’s prose that encompasses both conscious and unconscious symbols, metaphors, allegories, and references (Cerfeda 1). Significantly, the analysis of Kafka’s narrative requires an understanding of the cultural changes that happened during his time. For example, he lived in the era of the women’s emancipation movement, in which the woman acquired working and voting rights and could access education in different parts of the world (Cerfeda 2). The psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud also opened the door to the gender concept because Freud explicitly theorized perversion and explored sexuality (Cerfeda 2). Kafka’s exploration of human relationships in his works brings to the fore the thematic negotiation the politics of power and control. Edwards notes that Kafka is deeply interested in erotica, with his fascination with exploring taboo subjects in his writing (pp.17-18). Hence, the use of symbolism and metaphor was to assist him in exploring the forbidden in literature, particularly the study of masochism and sadism as a literary theme. An analysis of Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” and “A Hunger Artist” reveals that literature does not have to involve fornication to be considered pornographic. Instead, the symbolic unequal inter-human relations in his texts show his interest in the erotic, with transgression and punishment defining the writer’s narratives.
Defining Sadomasochism
Sadomasochism defines the enactment of dominance and subordination, which mostly happens in sexual relationships (Chancer 1). The sadomasochistic relations are based on power and powerlessness, especially in situations where there both parties are excessively attached. The connection is extreme because the participants feel they cannot do without each other. Chancer notes that there is a great symbiotic character, in which both the sadist and masochist compulsively need physical and psychic links to the other (3). Kainer underlines the sexualized sadomasochism, entailing the fantasized and enacted “S&M” of bondage and domination (40). The Freudian erotogenic sadomasochism illustrates how the sexual dominates the relational. The perspective highlights sadism’s exercise of violence or power upon an individual (Kainer 40). While the sadist occupies the position of control, the masochist adopts the persona of the more controlled in the repetitive and ritualistic character of the interaction. The contact of the parties is repetitively structured, hence there is no arbitrary or willing assumption or unassumption of roles. Bennett emphasizes that Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s conceptualizes sadomasochism considers sadism as the use of cruelty acts to achieve pleasurable sexual sensations and the desire to use force or inflict pain (29). Meanwhile, masochism denotes the wish for suffering and subjection to force. The act defines humiliation and abuse and the desire to be treated like a servant.
Sadomasochism in Kafka’s Metamorphosis
Kafka reveals aspects of sadomasochism through the relationships between the characters in his book. For example, Gregor Samsa’s alienation from being transformed into a giant bug expresses how the characters in the book do not relate as equals (Schaffner 334). Gregor’s evolution into an insect demonstrates his submissive authoritarian personality, in which he delivers himself into suffering for the benefit of others. Kafka describes how Gregor woke up from an anxious dream to discover he had changed into a verminous bug, whose numerous legs “…flickered helplessly before his eyes” (3). Rather than Samsa dealing with his present predicament of transforming into a bug, he wakes up and dwells on expressing regret for the job he has chosen. The character ponders over the stresses of traveling every day, the worries of train connections, a poor irregular diet, and having to continually change his relationships with humans because he cannot sustain friendships (Kafka 4). Therefore, Gregor is a masochist since he refuses to find a better job, but is resigned to complaining about his present one while continuing to work. He has submitted himself to the dominance of his boss, noting that if he were to just sit down to breakfast at the restaurant like the other gentlemen, his boss would likely sack him (Kafka 5). Therefore, Samsa’s sadomasochistic character relates to the sacrifice of his own immediate needs upon transformation, where he experiences pain and suffering.
Furthermore, there is a symbolic incestuous desire from Gregor for his mother, evident when he leaves his room to confront the manager who had come to inquire why he had not gone to work. Kafka describes Samsa’s entrance into the hallway, where he ended up lying on the floor, “Rocking in a restrained manner quire close and directly across from his mother” (23). Edwards explains Gregor’s relationship with his mother using Freud’s oedipal complex that describes a child’s desire for the parent of the opposite sex in the normal psychosexual development stage (18). Therefore, Samsa’s laying and rocking on the floor directly to his mother expresses the symbolic incestuous wish for sexual relations with her. The masochist desires emerge when Gregor’s father punishes him for scaring his mother, causing her to spring up from her position and crying out for help from his father (Kafka 23). Samsa’s father was bewildered by the manager’s flight when Gregor emerged from the room, and he took the manager’s cane and stamped his feet to drive him back into his room. Therefore, Gregor is impotent against his dominating father and is powerless before him in expressing the incestuous desire for his mother. However, he accepts the suffering and is resigned to profound passivity while deepening in his oedipal resentment to an overbearing father.
Besides, the interrelationships in Kafka’s metamorphosis relate to the other characters’ subjection of Gregor to a life of suffering and alienation for their pleasure. For example, Samsa hates his job because it is demanding and denies him the joys of life, noting that he sacrifices his sleep since he has to get up early (Kafka 4). He also compares himself with the other traveling salesmen who get time to sit down for breakfast while Gregor has to write up the necessary orders. Samsa notes that if he were to sit in the inn like the others, his boss would throw him out. Although it would be a good thing for him if he were sacked from the demanding job, he states that he holds back for the sake of his parents (Kafka 5). However, Gregor’s family had never considered his suffering, as evidenced by his mother calling out to him when he failed to wake up and asked whether he did not want to go to work (Kafka 6). Therefore, the sadist character of Samsa’s parents and sister is evident when they are unconcerned about his wellbeing because they depend on him to settle their debts and to sustain their livelihood.
Sadomasochism in Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist”
Kafka, in “A Hunger Artist,” eroticizes the suffering in starvation, where the character deprives himself of food inside a cage for the pleasure of others. For instance, the sadist nature of the town is evident when people took an interest in the hunger artist, spending their time and money to see him at least once daily as he fasted (Kafka 1). The author highlights how excitement always mounted with excitement to watch the artist fast, willing to sit the entire daytime in front of his cage. There were even visiting hours in the nighttime, and children had a special treat to see the hunger artist. Kafka underscores the suffering of the fasting man, describing the ribs that stuck out prominently, and the thinness of his arms (1). Cerfeda adds that Kafka had a troubled relationship with food, whereby he had turned into a vegetarian, which was uncommon in his social environment (14). Therefore, he uses his alter-ego to starve himself as a performance, with the artist living his art and how the people control him. He is obsessed with proving his artistic perfection to the audience, as evidenced when he spends sleepless nights with the night watchers to prove to them he did not secretly nourish himself (Kafka 1). Hence, the hunger artist perverts reality by preferring fasting over the standard of eating to feel better.
Moreover, sadomasochism is evident with the artist’s satisfaction with his suffering as the spectator of his fast. Kafka argues that since there were suspicions of the continuous and rigorous nature of the fasting, the artist remained the sole competitor who was completely satisfied (2). Despite his success in his act, the artist never truly found satisfaction, not because it was easy for him to fast, but since the audience failed to believe him. The inner dissatisfaction weighed on him, yet he was willing to cope with the doubts and pursue his art and leave the cage at will once the period of the fasting ended (Kafka 2). He would try to resist the forty-day limit, acknowledging that it would bring him more fame to last longer. Therefore, the artist was a masochist in that he enjoyed suffering for his gratification. Kafka eroticizes the fasting by introducing the women who helped the artist out of the cage after the forty days ended (2). While the ladies appeared friendly, they were, in reality, cruel to him as they took him away from the pleasure of fasting. Therefore, although there is no mention of sexual activity, the starvation is pornographic because of the endurance of sacrifice, in sadomasochistic fashion, to attain satisfaction.
Besides, the hunger artist’s persistence on subjecting himself to torture and pain highlights the insatiability of human desire, particularly in erotica. Kafka argues that often when the forty days lapsed, the hunger artist would turn stubborn as he asked why he needed to stop fasting while he was endured for so long (2). Thus, his masochist character is evident with his willingness to continue starving himself, even asking why the public could not be patient with him longer. The hunger artist is demonstrating that the fleshy desires of humans cannot be satisfied. The emaciation of his bodily form did not stop him from desiring to endure further suffering to prove himself to the audience that he was an expert at his art. Despite the visible glory and honor in which he lived for many, his spirit was always troubled because the people did not take him seriously (Kafka 3). The hunger artist’s life of dissatisfaction aligns with Gregor’s constant self-hatred and lack of belief in himself. Both characters are discontent with their achievements and are willing to deliver themselves to more suffering for the good of others. Their spirits are perpetually troubled, worrying about the wellbeing of others because their desire to please them is insatiable.
Accordingly, literature can be regarded pornographic without the involvement of fornication because the eroticism of the characters represents the sexualizing of their suffering. Kafka’s characters, Gregor and the hunger artist are in the constant state of wishing suffering on themselves for the sake of self-gratification and the satisfaction of others. They are masochistic because they inflict pain on themselves and enjoy it. The interrelationships between the characters in the literature also show unequal connections, where some dominate while the others subjugate themselves. The inequality underscores the sadomasochistic theme that transforms the literary symbols into sexual acts.
Works Cited
Bennett, Theodore. Cuts and criminality: Body alteration in legal discourse. Routledge, 2016.
Cerfeda, Davide. The performance of perversion in Kafka’s literature and its adaptations. (University of Melbourne Diss., 2019).
Chancer, Lynn S. Sadomasochism in everyday life: The dynamics of power and powerlessness. Rutgers University Press, 1992.
Edwards, Libby. “The Fantasy of Punishment: Masochism in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis,” The Undergraduate Research Journal at North Carolina Wesleyan College, https://omniummedia.files.wordpress.com/2019/08/4-edwards-masochism-in-kafka.pdf. Accessed 30 Apr. 2020.
Kafka, Franz. A hunger artist. Sheba Blake Publishing, 2017.
Kafka, Franz. The metamorphosis. Translated by Ian Johnston, 1915.
Kainer, Rochelle GK. The collapse of the self and its therapeutic restoration. Routledge, 2013.
Schaffner, Anna Katharina. “Kafka and the Hermeneutics of Sadomasochism,” Forum for Modern Language Studies. Vol. 46. No. 3, 2010: pp.334-350, https://academic.oup.com/fmls/article-abstract/46/3/334/592313. Accessed 30 Apr. 2020.