« Devant la loi » de Frank Kafka : une parabole des réfugiés dans l’hebdomadaire sioniste Selbstwehr

Abstract

The present article retraces the history of Selbstwehr, a Zionist weekly newspaper published in Prague from 1907 to 1939. Although Selbstwehr represented a crucial intellectual and editorial space for Kafka, it has often been neglected by his critics and editors. Not only was the literary journal where Kafka published his first texts, but also a medium that was strongly immersed in the current political events and contemporary history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and during times of geopolitical crisis. In this context, Kafka’s stories may take on new meanings. This article demonstrates that such is the case for the well-known text “Before the Law”. Taken in the context of the Sept. 7, 1915 issue of Selbstwehr, published in the middle of the First World War and a migratory crisis in which thousands of Jewish refugees fled from Galicia to Prague, the parable merits an unprecedented materialist interpretation.

Keywords

• Kafka
• « Before the Law »
• materialist approach
• parable
• feuilleton
• zionism